
fte, no if 25 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



BOOKS BY J. D. BUCK, M.D. 

A Study of Man $1.00 

Mystic Masonry 1.00 

The Genius of Freemasonry 1.00 

Constructive Psychology 1.00 

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The New Avatar 2.00 



MYSTIC MASONRY 



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I MYSTIC MASONRY I 



or The Symbols of Freemasonry 

and the 
Greater My Antiquity 



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Vol. V. 

tort Indo- American ?'.-.■ 
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1911 

INDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 

CHICAGO 



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J. D. BUCK, M. D. 

Made a Master Mason, Battle Creek, Mich. 
September 27, 1864. 

Made a Royal Arch Mason, Sandusky, Ohio. 
November 27, 1867. 

Royal and Select Master, Sandusky, Ohio, 1868. 

DeMolay Commandery, Republic, Ohio, 1869. 

3?o Scottish Rite, Northern Jurisdiction, Mu; 

33<> Honorary, Scottish Rite, Northern J 

Detroit, Michigan, September 1910. 



I MYSTIC MASONRY \ 

| | 

or The Symbols of Freemasonry I 

and the 1 
Greater Mysteries of Antiquity 

I ByJ.D.BuclM.D. 4 

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1 Supplemental Harmonic Series, 

| Vol. V. | 

| .First Indo-American Edition f 

g Fi/tfi Regular Edition | 

i i 

I 1911 

INDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY I 

I CHICAGO 1 



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Copyright 1896, by J. D. Buck. 
Copyright 1911, by J. D. Buck. 






GCLA'293964 



DEDICATED 



UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD 



HUMANITY 



Its Heroes. Martyrs and Sages in the Past 



Its Servants in the Present 



CONTENTS 

Foreword to the Third Edition vii 

Preface to the Second Edition xv 

Introduction xix 

Chapter Page 

I Principles of Education and Ethics 41 

II The Genius of Freemasonry .65 

III The Genius of Freemasonry Continued 80 

IV The Secret Doctrine 117 

V The Secret Doctrine — Science and Religion.... 147 

VI The Secret Doctrine — The Septenary 

Nature of Man ..168 

VII The Secret Doctrine — The Sign of the 

Master 207 

VIII The Great Lodge 218 

IX An Outline of Symbolism 239 

X Conclusion 256 

Postscript to the Fifth Edition _..269 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece. The Old Wisdom-Religion. 

Plate I. Descent of Spirit into Matter. 

Plate II. The Lost Word: The First Trinity. 

Plate III. The First Differentiation. 

Plate. IV. The Second Differentiation. 

Plate V. The Third Differentiation. 

Plate VI. The Relation of Spirit to Matter. 

Plate VII. Matter and Spirit in Equilibrium. 

Plate VIII. The Greater Tetraktys. 

Plate IX. The Stone that the Builders Rejected. 

Plate X. The Trinity of Trinities. 

Plate XI. The Proportion of Number to Form. 

Plate XII. The Masonic Apron. 

Plate XIII. The Cube and the Cross. 

Plate XIV. Symbolic Stages of Evolution. 





THE OLD- 








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Frontispiece. 



FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The spirit of unrest is in the air. On the sur- 
face of things today, Commercialism most often and 
most loudly claims attention. Great combinations 
of capital and the massing of millions seem the 
order of the day. Within the body politic organi- 
zation and cooperation is being tried on a scale 
never before recorded in the history of man, and 
economic problems are being tested in a way that 
cannot help adding immensely to the combined ex- 
perience of mankind. What the final outcome may 
be, only the wisest could now say, and perhaps only 
the foolish would venture to predict. 

But human nature is essentially a stable product, 
and can be relied on in any event. Deep in the 
heart of man lies the principle of justice • and 
equity, and no abuse that selfishness and greed can 
devise can long have any permanency. We may 
be far from the universal reign of Brotherhood, 

(vii) 



viii Foreword to the Third Edition. 

but there is something deep down in the heart of 
man that continually strives toward it. 

Potent as is all this commercial unrest and eco- 
nomic strife, other problems are equally up for 
solution. Using the term in its broadest sense, the 
Psychic problem keeps pace with the economic. 
Ethics and Economics are inseparable. The con- 
duct of the individual, and the use of the resources 
of life and the distribution of wealth, always in- 
volve both ethics and economics; in short, consti- 
tute them. 

Outside the churches and religious literature we 
hear less about religion nowadays. Indeed, many 
otherwise good people seem to think religion obso- 
lete; a thing of the past; a survival — where, indeed, 
it is admitted to have survived at all — of the dark 
ages. No greater mistake could possibly be made. 
The surface problems may have changed; organi- 
zations may have broken up or disappeared, but 
the vital issues not only remain, but were never 
more in evidence than today. Nor can it be other- 
wise so long as the essential nature of man remains 
unchanged. 

Only the imbecile or the degenerate can really 
ignore the religious element in his own nature if 
he tries. Just as inevitably as water seeks its level, 



Foreword to the Third Edition. ix 

and ultimately finds its way to the sea, does man 
feel after that Power — called by whatsoever name — 
whose divine ray makes him Man, and whose in- 
dwelling presence lifts him, at rare moments, be- 
yond sordid self, and beckons his soul toward the 
higher, the larger, the better, as by the touch of 
wings. This is a universal experience, equally 
known to the savage and the civilized, and entirely 
independent of theologies or ecclesiasticism. 
Theologians in all ages have seized hold of this 
common human experience and formulated and en- 
deavored to guide it, and have often exploited it, 
just as capitalists have dealt with economic prob- 
lems in the resources of nature and the distribution 
of wealth. 

This is, broadly speaking, the psychic problem, 
constituting the religious element in the life of 
man. It was never more manifest than it is today. 
This it is that now runs pari passu with commer- 
cialism; and while, as already said, it may make 
less noise, it is everywhere in evidence. 

Every problem in the life of man, and every 
movement that affects society, is, in the last analy- 
sis, a psychic problem. One and all they concern 
the body and its environments incidentally, and the 
soul essentially. 



x Foreword to the Third Edition. 

The progress made in physical science in the last 
half century is so remarkable that it is difficult to 
find an adjective suitable with which to designate 
it. Hence the economic problems already referred 
to are necessarily to be revised. 

While the psychic problems have come into equal 
prominence, no such organized results can be 
pointed out as in economic experiments. The race, 
as a whole, has been gathering facts and making 
experiments. The working hypothesis in psychol- 
ogy has seldom been suggested. At any rate, there 
is no large or general agreement as to any theo- 
rems. There seem to be no designs on the trestle- 
board, and the workmen, the legions, are in con- 
fusion. 

The great majority of people, even among the 
educated and intelligent, will make haste to deny 
that this psychic theorem has ever been known to 
man. That it could ever have been discovered and 
then' lost, or concealed, is to them preposterous; 
yet the whole of the traditions and symbolism of 
Masonry cluster around this theorem, this working 
hypothesis in the psychical life of man. It is the 
one thing needed to bring order out of confusion 
in the psychic problems that interest so many at 
the present time. 



Foreword to the Third Edition. xi 

This Great Secret, this Master's Word, was 
known to and preserved in the Mysteries of An- 
tiquity, and is embodied and preserved in the tradi- 
tions and symbols of Masonry today. This fact has 
been stated repeatedly in the body of this little 
book, the real purpose of which was to set students, 
and particularly masonic students, to searching for 
the real secret. It is the reward of study and de- 
votion, and has never been obtained on any other 
terms. It has never been conferred in the ritualis- 
tic degrees of the Lodge, and never will or can 
be. It is the establishment of understanding in the 
soul of man between that higher self in him, and 
the More, and the Beyond self from which he draws 
his life, and from which his intuitions spring. This 
is real Initiation: Becoming: At-one-ment. 

The author is both gratified and encouraged at 
the reception accorded and the interest manifested 
in this little book, and the commendations received 
from many quarters. That it could become, in any 
broad sense, popular, he never for a moment im- 
agined. It is too serious and void of sensational- 
ism for that. In entering now on its third thou- 
sand, it has already exceeded any expectation of 
the author, who will be profoundly gratified if he 
may aid, though it be but a little, in increasing the 



xii Foreword to the Third Edition. 

respect entertained by the community at large for 
the Order of Freemasonry, and encourage his 
brother Masons in seeking More Light. 

I believe that nowhere amongst men today can 
there be found so near an approach to an Ideal 
Brotherhood of Man as in the Masonic Lodges. 
Perfect it is not, and cannot be till human evolution 
is completed. Among the hundreds of thousands 
of Masons today in the United States it would be 
difficult to find one who does not strive his best to 
exercise charity and loving-kindness, particularly 
toward his brothers in the Lodge. There are thou- 
sands of Masons, moreover, who realize that 
Masonry contains and implies far more than ap- 
pears in the ritual and ceremonies of the Lodge. 
There is a very widespread and growing interest 
in this direction, and it is this that Mystic Ma- 
sonry, above all else, is designed to foster, encour- 
age, and help. Indeed, the growth of this feeling 
in the past decade is remarkable, and the present 
writer has not a shadow of a doubt as to the 
result. 

It is the ethical precepts inculcated in the Lodge 
and so largely practiced by the craft, more than all 
else, that open the higher intuitions of man, and 
so enable him to grasp and finally comprehend the 



Foreword to the Third Edition. xiii 

higher problems concealed in the profound sym- 
bolism of Masonry. Modern Masonry is thus fast 
becoming, like its ancient prototype, a School of 
the Mysteries; the real Mystery being the origin 
and nature of the human soul, and the transcendent 
and immortal destiny of Man. 

The Masonic organization is so large, so wide- 
spread, so strong; its spirit so fraternal; its teach- 
ing so helpful and inspiring, that it seems destined 
to achieve the most glorious results in the encour- 
agement and uplifting of the whole human race. 

The hard and fast lines that have heretofore seg- 
regated mankind are rapidly disappearing. Creed 
and dogma have lost their hold since the State no 
longer protects them, and the anathemas of eccle- 
siastics are no longer feared. Men and women of 
all classes are coming into closer touch with the 
avowed purpose of understanding, in order that 
they may help each other. It is more and more 
recognized that the good of one is the welfare of 
all. The "sin of separateness" is thus slowly being 
undermined. Hence the ethical, the religious, the 
economic, and the political problems are seen to be 
practically inseparable, and all definitely related in 
the one problem of the higher evolution of man. 
This recognized unity of knowledge and community 



xiv Foreword to the Third Edition. 

of interests is the prelude to the Universal Brother- 
hood of man that is the ideal state and the dream 
of every true philanthropist throughout the ages. 
Masonry stands for just this, and all this, just as 
for ages the Great Mysteries clearly defined and 
promulgated the philosophy which makes such an 
ideal state, such a Great Republic of Nations and 
peoples possible. It must be founded on a knowl- 
edge of man's entire nature, and cemented by loving- 
kindness toward each and all, then only can it exist 
and endure. 

To promote this glorious result is the sole pur- 
pose of this little book. This is indeed the Work 
of the Lodge, as it should be of every Frater 
throughout the world, till in the end it is the work 
of every individual. 

Cincinnati, January, 1903. 



Preface to the Second Edition. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



That a second edition of this little book should 
be called for within six weeks of the date of issue 
is, perhaps, the best answer to the inquiry in the 
mind of its author as to what kind of a reception so 
serious a view of modern Freemasonry, and so high 
an estimate of Ancient Mysteries as is herein set 
forth, might receive. It has not only attracted at- 
tention and excited inquiry, but met the unqualified 
approval of certain high Masons. Sir Albert Pike's 
greatest work, restricted to the members of the 
craft, obtained but one hundred and fifty sub- 
scribers. If Mystic Masonry quadrupled this sub- 
scription list before the date of publication, the 
reason is to be sought, not in the superior quality 
of the book, but in the more popular form in which 
the subject is handled, in the removal of all restric- 
tions as to subscribers, and still more, from the fact 
that a widespread interest has of late arisen in re- 
gard to these subjects; offering, as the author be- 
lieves, the grandest opportunity presented to real 



xvi Preface to the Second Edition. 

Masonry for more than a thousand years, for pre- 
senting its sublime philosophy to the world for the 
uplifting of humanity. 

Mystic Masonry is, to a considerable extent, a 
compilation. It was not the author's purpose to 
become an innovator, but rather, in a modest way, 
an inspirer and renovator, and for this purpose he 
but repeated statements that had already been made 
by those high in Masonic authority, statements that 
had been overlooked or forgotten, and that needed 
to be remembered. In his preface to Morals and 
Dogma, Mr. Pike declares that about one-half of 
that work is original matter, and half taken from 
various sources, and that as he was writing neither 
for fame nor money, but for the benefit of the craft, 
the source of what he had set down was a matter of 
secondary importance. He often adapted, rather 
than quoted, in many places, and very seldom gave 
authorities. He wrote those things which he evi- 
dently believed his Masonic Brotherhood ought to 
know, and as he had divested his mind of all selfish 
motive or hope of gain, so must he be exempt from 
the charge of plagiarism. He drew very largely, in 
many places, from the writings of Abbe Constant, 
better known as Eliphas Levi, whose writings then 
existed only in the French language, and which un- 



Preface to the Second Edition. xvii 

doubtedly contain the most profound knowledge of 
the Occult Sciences and the Ancient Mysteries given 
to the world since the days of the Old Initiates. As 
the present author has observed, in the body of this 
book, it matters far less whence these truths have 
been derived than what they really mean, although 
no reader is bound to accept the interpretation put 
upon them by any writer or commentator. Yet 
every intelligent inquirer may discern their general 
reasonableness, the logical sequence of the whole as 
revealing a profound philosophy of Nature and of 
Life, and the beneficent influence they must exert 
if universally diffused and generally adopted 
amongst men. 

Liberty and Equality based on Fraternity may 
have degenerated into a slogan of blood in the days 
of the French Revolution, yet in more peaceful times 
must such Fraternity be interpreted as the ideal 
state, and made to promote the Universal and Un- 
qualified Brotherhood of Man, 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object of the author of this book is to show 
the relation between Freemasonry and the Mysteries 
of Antiquity. This much, at least, is implied by the 
title of the book. That there is both a historical 
and philosophical thread uniting these departments 
of human thought and action is well known to 
every intelligent student of Masonry, no less than to 
all students of Symbolism and Mysticism. One trav- 
eler, in the wilds of South America, records the fact 
that he found there an ancient roadbed running 
over mountain and valley for hundreds of miles. 
By whom this ancient structure was built is a mat- 
ter of conjecture. It is now broken by time, with 
great gaps here and there, and forest trees obliter- 
ating its pathway, but k everywhere shows the de- 
signing hand of man. In like manner when we un- 
dertake to follow the landmarks than connect the 
ancient wisdom with modern times, we must not 

(xix) 



xx Introduction. 

look for uninterrupted threads, yet nevertheless will 
the careful student find the lines of transmission un- 
mistakable, and the interruptions no x bar to the 
proof of transmission from age to age. 

Masonry deals largely with the ethics and sym- 
bolism of the Ancient Mysteries. The writer be- 
lieves that through the well-timed efforts of Masons 
today the grandest achievements in knowledge ever 
gained by man, which were originally concealed in 
the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, and in time be- 
came lost to the world, may be again recovered. In 
the strictest sense this knowledge has never really 
been lost, as there have always existed those who 
were possessed of the Great Secret. It was orig- 
inally veiled in order to conceal it from the pro- 
fane, and written in a universal language of Sym- 
bolism that the wise among all nations and through- 
out all time might read it, as it were, in their own 
language. It was also written in parable and alle- 
gory, so that the unlettered and common people 
might not be deprived of its wise precepts, and of 
its force in shaping character, dissipating igno- 
rance, and inspiring hope. This Ancient Wisdom is 
the fountain from which Masonry takes its rise. 
The true Science of Symbolism in time became 
lost; the Temples of Initiation fell into decay, or 



Introduction. xxi 

were destroyed by priests and potentates, jealous of 
their influence. For many weary centuries men 
have been trying to recover the lost key and to re- 
store the ancient wisdom from the parables and alle- 
gories in which it had been concealed. But 
progress in this inverse order is not only necessarily 
slow and uncertain, but all such attempts have, more 
or less, given rise to fantastic flights of the imagina- 
tion, and resulted in confusion, rather than in en- 
lightenment. The result has been to bring the whole 
subject under contempt, and to make the name 
"mysticism" mean something vague and uncertain, 
if not altogether foolish, to those ignorant of its 
true meaning. 

"Remember," says Bro. Albert Pike, "that the 
lessons and ceremonies of these degrees (those of 
the Blue-Lodge) have been for ages more and 
more accommodating themselves, by curtailment 
and sinking into common-place, to the often limited 
memory and capacity of the Master and Instructor, 
and to the intellect and needs of the Pupil and 
Initiate; that they have come to us from an age 
when symbols were used, not to reveal but to con- 
ceal: when the commonest learning was confined 
to a select few, and the simplest principles of moral- 
ity seemed newly discovered truths : and that these 



xxii Introduction. 

antique and simple degrees now stand like the 
broken columns of a roofless, Druidic temple in 
their mutilated greatness: in many parts also cor- 
rupted by time, and disfigured by modern additions 
and absurd interpretations." — Morals and Dogma, 
p. 106. 

Here, then, are two causes that have operated to 
render the old wisdom difficult of recovery, viz., 
concealment, and ignorant alteration or misinterpre- 
tation. To these must be added a third source of 
obliteration, viz., the direct efforts of interested par- 
ties to utterly destroy all records. "Let one only 
think of the thousands, and perhaps millions, of 
MSS. burnt; of monuments with their too indiscreet 
inscriptions and pictorial symbols pulverized to dust ; 
of the bands of early hermits and ascetics roaming 
about among the ruined cities of Upper and Lower 
Egypt, in desert and mountain, valley and high- 
lands, seeking for and ready to destroy every obe- 
lisk and pillar, scroll or parchment they could lay 
their hands upon, if it only bore the symbol of the 
tau or any other sign borrowed and appropriated by 
the new faith: — and he will then see plainly how it 
is that so little has remained of the records of the 
Past." — Secret Doctrine, p. xl., vol. I. 

Every intelligent and unbiased Mason is more or 



Introduction. xxiii 

less aware of these facts, and of the great difficulty 
attending all efforts to recover the Lost Word, and 
to rebuild the City and Temple of the Lord, — a 
glyph that has many meanings. The author of 
this book desires to aid all that he can in this noble 
and glorious undertaking. 

In the effort to bring about such a result it is not 
contemplated that any innovations whatever should 
be introduced into Masonry as now organized. If 
the sublime philosophy which is the heritage of 
Masonry shall become universally diffused and ren- 
dered capable of apprehension by all intelligent 
persons, not only among Masons, but everywhere, 
its beneficent influence may thus become universal 
among men. In this way may be hastened the rise 
of that Great "Republic of which every Nation is 
a family, and every individual a child." 

It will be very naturally questioned whether any 
thing can be definitely ascertained regarding the 
Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, inasmuch as they 
were always concealed, never revealed to the pro- 
fane, never published to the world, and only re- 
corded in glyph, parable and allegory. It has al- 
ready been shown that all attempts to discover the 
real secret by running backward from parable and 
allegory have resulted in confusion and discourage- 



xxiv Introduction. 

merit. The interpretations resulting have been as 
fantastic and varied as the genius of each investi- 
gator; had any of these been possessed of a uni- 
versal key to symbolism, or a complete philosophy 
of the Secret Doctrine, the result might have been 
very different. The solution of this question is not 
only greatly simplified, when investigation is guided 
by such a philosophy, or a complete key, but the in- 
vestigator has the positive assurance at every step 
that he is on firm ground. 

But a far more important consideration remains to 
be noted. There is a tradition in the far East, and 
to be often traced more or less vaguely in the West, 
that the Great Lodge of the Magi, the Adepts, the 
Perfect Masters, known and designated also by 
many other names, has never ceased to exist; that 
this Lodge has often, though secret and unknown, 
shaped the course of Empire and controlled the fate 
.of Nations. Knowing always the line of least re- 
sistance, and when and how to act, and having al- 
ways in view only one object, viz., the Progress of 
Humanity £nd the Brotherhood of Man ; despising 
fame and worldly honors, and working "without 
the hope of fee or reward," they have concealed 
their labors, and either influenced those who knew 



Introduction. xxv 

them not to do their work, or worked through 
agents pledged to conceal their very existence. 

To the public generally, this may be a matter of 
little interest or importance, as the character of the 
work done must be the sole criterion by which that 
work is to be measured. But to Masons it should 
be of interest, as showing what it is to be indeed a 
Master Builder. It will reveal. to them the meaning 
and goal of human evolution, and give them the 
unqualified assurance that that evolution is being 
now aided by those who know, as it has not been for 
many centuries. Such work has now become possi- 
ble, because of a cycle of liberality and enlighten- 
ment, when the workers are not likely to be sacri- 
ficed to the Moloch of bigotry and superstition. 
Granting that such Masters exist, and that they are 
possessed of profound knowledge, that they are ready 
to help the world, the world must be ready and will- 
ing to receive such help, if it is to be benefited by it, 
instead of destroying its agents. Guided, then, by a 
complete philosophy; armed with a key to symbol- 
ism, and aided by these Grand Masters, the Lost 
Mysteries of Antiquity may be restored and made 
to tell their hoary secrets for the benefit of the 
coming age. 

The object of this book is to give an outline of 



xxvi Introduction. 

such work; it is introductory, and, to some extent, 
explanatory, but by no means exhaustive. It is not 
based upon any authority beyond the author's sin- 
cere convictions and capacity to apprehend the sub- 
ject. The Mason who is ready to dig deeper and 
fill in the outline here furnished is recommended to 
read carefully, if he has not already done so, Albert 
Pike's great book, Morals and Dogma. 

The historical method of research is not followed 
in the compilation or writing of this book, although 
historical facts are herein recorded. It is of far less 
importance to determine whence Masonry has been 
derived, than what it really teaches. In answering 
this question, it may be justly charged that the au- 
thor has put his own interpretation forward, not 
against facts or history, but in the face of what may 
be regarded as insufficient historical proof. To such 
a charge he would reply, first, that no well-authenti- 
cated history of Masonry is known to exist; there 
being only isolated facts, or fragments, recording the 
existence of certain organizations or movements at 
different times, and their disappearance on account 
of inward dissension or outward persecution. Then 
another movement would spring up, at another time 
and place, and perhaps under a different name, 
though evidently working on the same general lines, 



Introduction. xxvh 

only to meet with a similar fate. One writer makes 
the statement that fully eight hundred different de- 
grees have thus, from time to time, been introduced 
to the Craft as Masonic. In no case does there exist 
any reliable consecutive history of these various 
movements. But even if such history existed, it 
would but little serve the purpose of the present 
work, as will be readily seen from what has hereto- 
fore been said regarding all these attempts to dis- 
cover the Lost Word, by reading backward from the 
outer form of Symbolism. Such a history would be 
curious and interesting, as showing the fertility of 
the human imagination, and its proneness to regard 
as valuable that which is curious and fantastic, be- 
cause it is concealed. Mere vulgar curiosity and 
secrecy alone have never yet been the pass-words to 
the Adytum of real Initiation. On the other hand, 
such a history, did it really exist, would be tinged 
with a touch of pathos, on account of the many sor- 
rowful disappointments it would have to record, in 
the case of earnest souls seeking, with sincerity and 
in truth, for the "Lost Word of the Master," only to 
be overwhelmed at last by disappointment, or to be 
publicly executed as malefactors and enemies of 
State or Church. Such histories as exist well de- 
serve, in many cases, the designation of "organized 



xxviii Introduction. 

fiction," and almost invariably record merely the 
opinions of those who were friendly or unfriendly 
to such movements, with a corresponding dearth of 
facts. 

For these reasons, no specially historical character 
is attempted to be given to this work. One of the 
strong points urged by the writer is the logical in- 
ferences drawn from such facts as are known to 
exist, and the general spirit everywhere admitted 
as pervading the Ancient Mysteries in their orig- 
inal purity. That such organizations should exist 
through all time and yet be without a history seems 
at first a strange paradox. The enemies of Ma- 
sonry will urge this fact as a reason for rejecting 
all that is herein contained, ignorant of the fact 
that few histories of any people or any epoch are 
better founded. Foremost among these detractors 
or deniers will be found the bigoted sectarian and 
the modern materialist. With each of these the 
real genius of Masonry is in perpetual conflict. For 
the first, the universal and unqualified Brotherhood 
of Man, is a dead letter, for he believes that only 
himself and his chosen associates can be saved. For 
the second, the materialist, the recognition of the 
Divine Architect of the Universe, in Masonry, as 
the "Principle of Principles," and belief in the im- 



Introduction. xxix 

mortality of the Soul, will prove an equal stum- 
bling block. Fortunately, the number of bigoted 
sectarians and the out-and-out materialists is few. 
The historical deficiency referred to is by no means 
without a parallel. That superstructure known as 
Christianity has, it is true, many historical phases; 
of dogmas the most contradictory; of doctrines pro- 
mulgated in one age, and enforced with vice-regal 
authority, and severe penalties for denial and dis- 
belief, only to be denied and repudiated as "damn- 
able heresy" in another age. In the meantime, the 
origin of these doctrines and the personality of the 
Man of Sorrows around which these traditions clus- 
ter receive no adequate support from authentic his- 
tory. What, then, shall we conclude regarding the 
real genius of Christianity? Is it all a fable, put 
forth and kept alive by designing men, to support 
their pretensions to authority? Are historical facts 
and personal biography alone entitled to credit? 
While everlasting principles, Divine Beneficence, 
and the laying down of one's life for another are of 
no account? Is that which has inspired the hope 
and brightened the lives of the down-trodden and 
despairing for ages a mere fancy, a designing lie? 
Tear every shred of history from the life of the 
Christ today, and prove beyond all controversy that 



xxx Introduction. 

he never existed, and Humanity, from its heart-of- 
hearts, would create him again tomorrow and jus- 
tify the creation by every intuition of the human soul 
and by every need of the daily life of man. The 
historical contention might be given up, ignored, 
and the whole character, genius, and mission of 
Jesus, the Christ, be none the less real, beneficent, 
and eternal, with all of its human and dramatic 
episodes. Explain it as you will, it can never be 
explained away ; the character remains ; and whether 
Historical or Ideal, it is real and eternal. 

This digression serves to illustrate a principle of 
interpretation. The Traditions and Symbols of 
Masonry do not derive their real value from his- 
torical data, but from the universal and eternal 
truths which they embody. Were they historical epi- 
sodes only, the world in its cyclic revolutions would 
long ago have swept by them and buried them in 
eternal oblivion. These great truths, obscured and 
lost in one age by misinterpretation or persecution, 
rise, Phoenix-like, rejuvenated in the next. They 
are Immortal Ideals, knowing neither decay nor 
death. They are like a Divine Image concealed in 
a block of stone (the rough ashler), which many 
artists assail with mallet and chisel, square and 
compass, only, perchance, to release a distorted 



Introduction. xxxi 

idol. Only the Perfect Master can so chip away the 
stone as to reveal in all its grandeur and beauty the 
Divine Ideal, and endow it with the breath of life. 
Such is the building of character. The fable of 
Pygmalion and Galatea is, after all, more real than 
history. The thread of history is not in isolated 
facts, joined by conjecture, and warped to the ig- 
norant, bigoted, and time-serving opinions of men. 
The real thread is to be sought in the theme that 
runs through the symphony of creation; in the lofty 
Ideals that inspire the life of man, and that lead him 
from the clod and the lowlands, where hover the 
ghosts of superstition and fear, to the mountains of 
light, where dwell forever inspiration and peace. 
Such ideals are the Christ, Hiram, and the Perfect 
Master. 

It is doubtful whether any portion of the present 
organization of Masonry, as such, can be traced 
further back than the middle of the 17th century. 
The great Masonic revolution of 1717, and the 
Constitutions of 1723 and 1738, seem to have brought 
into existence the present organizations; which, by 
no means uniform throughout the world, have, 
nevertheless, very much in common. There were 
indeed earlier organizations, often unknown and un- 
suspected, and operating under different names, 



xxxii Introduction. 

while using the same glyphs and symbolism; but 
no direct connection has been clearly shown to 
exist between these organizations and those of the 
present time. But as our pursuit is philosophical 
rather than historical, and our appeal rather to 
reason than to authority, we need not go into these 
matters further than may be necessary as land- 
marks in following our philosophical thread. 

A distinctively Christian character is now given 
to some of the Masonic degrees in Europe and 
America. Without the slightest opposition to the 
Christian religion, as such, it can readily be shown 
that a sectarian bias of any kind is an innovation, 
wholly unwarranted, and entirely contrary to the 
genius of Masonry. Masonry, on the broad prin- 
ciple of toleration and brotherhood, can exclude 
neither Jew nor Gentile, Parsee nor Buddhist from 
its ample fold. Masonry is chiefly indebted to the 
French Jesuits for the distinctively Christian char- 
acter of some of its degrees. The templar degrees 
are purely sectarian, and can in no sense claim that 
universal character which recognizes the fraternity 
of all religions, and finds fellowship with all men, as 
brothers of one common humanity. No genuine 
Mason, imbued with the spirit of liberality, will 
treat any religion with derision or contempt, or ex- 



Introduction. xxxin 

elude from membership any Brother who believes in 
the existence of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and 
the Immortality of the Soul. This Catholic spirit 
is the very foundation of Masonry, and any de- 
parture from it is un-Masonic, and subversive of 
the ancient Landmarks and Genius of Masonry. If 
the Catholic Priests have the right to Christianize 
Masonry, so have Jews, Buddhists, or Mohamme- 
dans, an equal right to transform it to fit their own 
creeds; and such transformation in every case de- 
prives Masonry of its universal character. While 
it cannot benefit the creed to which Masonry is 
made to conform, it will, in the end, destroy Ma- 
sonry itself. True Masonry has, for ages, held 
aloft the torch-light of Toleration, Equity and Fra- 
ternity. The bigoted sectarian, whoever he may be, 
divides the world into two classes: those who, with 
zeal and blind faith, accept his dogmas, and those 
who do not. The first he calls "brothers," the sec- 
ond class he regards as aliens, if not enemies. 
Masonry, while adopting no religion and no form 
of doctrine or creed, as such, or as formulated by 
any one religion, recognizes certain basic principles 
embodying the ethics taught in all religions. Every 
Mason may formulate his creed to suit himself, and 
may institute such forms of worship as may seem to 



xxxiv Introduction. 

him desirable or beneficent. Now, that the old 
creeds are everywhere losing their hold and falling 
in pieces, it is more than ever necessary to show that 
none of these have ever been a legitimate part of 
Masonry; that while Masonry antagonizes none, it 
can adopt none as Masonic. This impartial spirit 
is the basis of that impartial justice illustrated in 
more than one Masonic degree. 

"The distinction between the esoteric and ex- 
oteric doctrines (a distinction purely Masonic) was 
always and from the very earliest times preserved 
among the Greeks. It remounted to the fabulous 
time of Orpheus. . . . And after the time of Alex- 
ander they resorted for instruction, dogmas, and 
mysteries, to all the schools; to those of Egypt and 
Asia, as well as those of ancient Thrace, Sicily, 
Etruria, and Attica." 

The real source from whence the Ancient Wis- 
dom came was Persia and old India, the Mother of 
Civilizations and Religions, and of the esoteric or 
• concealed wisdom. 

In this book it is not attempted to explain all of 
the symbols of Freemasonry, or to completely un- 
fold the philosophy of the Secret Doctrine. Such 
an undertaking would transcend both the time and 
ability of the author. The aim is rather to show a 



Introduction. xxxv 

few points of contact, to outline methods of inter- 
pretation, to convince the unbiased reader that in 
the ancient mysteries lies a mine of wisdom far be- 
yond all modern achievement, and to invite the co- 
operation of Masons in upholding these Ancient 
Truths. To recover the Lost Word is to revive the 
Ancient Wisdom, and this will facilitate Universal 
Fraternity and Universal Progress more than all 
other agencies now in our possession. 

In its ritualism and monitorial lessons Masonry 
teaches nothing in morals, in science, in religion, or 
in any other department of human knowledge or 
human interest, not taught elsewhere in current 
forms of thought, or by the sages of the past. In 
these directions it has no secrets of any kind. It is 
in the ancient symbols of Freemasonry that its real 
secrets lie concealed, and these are as densely veiled 
to the Mason as to any other, unless he has studied 
the science of symbolism in general, and masonic 
symbols in particular. In place of the term Mystic 
Masonry, the term Symbolic Masonry might have - 
been used alone, but just here lies the whole secret, 
a profound mystery, and few Masons up to the 
present time have had the interest or the patience 
necessary to such investigation. This is a fact, and 
not intended as either a criticism or a reproach. If 



xxxvi Introduction. 

lacking a knowledge of the profound meaning of 
masonic symbolism, and its transcendent interest 
and importance, Masons have allowed the whole or- 
ganization not only to fail in all real progress, but to 
degenerate, that is indeed a reproach. The number 
of individuals admitted to fellowship in the various 
degrees can not atone for such degeneracy, but on 
the contrary it rather emphasizes it. The author of 
this book is perfectly well aware that such a treatise 
will not be popular with a certain class of Masons. 
They are almost certain to regard it with contempt 
and to undertake to frown it down. They will 
make the statement, which is perfectly true, that no 
such meaning has before been explained to them, 
and that no such philosophy is found in the moni- 
torial instructions of the Lodge. The author can 
not, therefore, be justly accused of revealing any of 
the secrets of the Lodge unlawfully. The most 
profound secrets of Masonry are not revealed in the 
Lodge at all. They belong only to the few. This 
again, if admitted as a fact, will seem an injustice. 
But these secrets must be sought by the individual 
himself, and the candidate is debarred from possess- 
ing them solely by his own inattention to the hints 
everywhere given in the ritual of the Lodge, or by 
his indifference to the subject. If he prefers to 



Introduction. xxxvii 

treat the whole subject with contempt, and to deny 
that any such real knowledge exists, it becomes evi- 
dent that he not only closes the door against the 
possibility of himself possessing such knowledge, 
but he also becomes impervious to any evidence of 
its existence that might come to him at any time. 
He has no one but himself to blame if he is left in 
darkness. 

On the other hand, there is a large and increasing 
number of persons among Masons who really desire 
more light; who are satisfied that there must be 
other and profounder meanings behind the ritual 
and ceremonies of the Lodge. Some of these have 
taken the hint and "Journeyed Eastward" in search 
of Light. 

The play made upon the word "light/' in the 
Royal Arch, and in almost every other degree; the 
three greater lights, and the three lesser, ought to 
teach every intelligent Mason that Light, and the 
trinity, or triangle of lights, have a profound mean- 
ing, or else that the whole ritual is a meaningless 
farce. Aside from all interest that any individual 
Mason may find in the subject for his own enlight- 
enment, it is obviously his duty, while preserving 
unaltered the usages and landmarks of the Order, 
to advance the interests and fame of Masonry itself 



xxxviii Introduction. 

by every just and benevolent means in his power. 
The names that are honored in the traditions of the 
Lodge and in the history of the Order, belong to 
those who have thus achieved enduring fame, and 
they are held aloft in the ritual of the Lodge as 
worthy of all emulation. But shall neither the 
present nor the future add anything to this roll of 
honor? or, if need be, to the list of martyrs? Are 
the days of noble deeds past with Masonry forever? 
and the need of self-sacrifice and devotion altogether 
a thing of the past? There was never greater need 
than at the present time ; never so great an opportu- 
nity as now for Masonry to assume its true place 
among the institutions of man and to force recogni- 
tion by the simple power of Brotherly Love, Relief, 
and Truth, based upon philosophy such as nowhere 
else exists outside of its ancient symbols. If the 
majority of Masons do not realize the true signifi- 
cance and value of their possessions, there is all the 
more need for those who do to speak out, even in 
the face of discouragement and detraction, and do 
their utmost to demonstrate the truth. Does any in- 
telligent Mason imagine that the guilds of practical 
Masons of a century and a half ago originated the 
Order of Freemasons? There were indeed Archi- 
tects and Master Builders among them, but the 



Introduction. xxxix 

great majority of Masons were far more ignorant, 
as manual servants, than the majority of such 
builders are today. Freemasonry is modeled on the 
plan of the Ancient Mysteries, with their glyphs 
and allegories, and this is no mere coincidence; the 
parallels are too closely drawn. Bro. Pike came to 
the conclusion, after long and patient investigation, 
that certain Hermetic Philosophers had a hand in 
the construction of the organization of Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons, and if they embodied in its symbol- 
ism more than appears on the surface, and far 
deeper truths than the superficial student readily 
discerns, it was evidently designed that future gen- 
erations should discern and use these profounder 
secrets. The evidence in this direction is not only 
conclusive but overwhelming, though only frag- 
ments of it can be here adduced. 

In brief, then, the real secrets of Freemasonry 
lie in its Symbols, and the meaning of the symbols 
reveals a profound philosophy, and a universal 
science, that have never been transcended by man. 

The author of this book is not presumptive enough 
to claim that he has exhausted, or altogether appre- 
hended, in its entirety, this old philosophy. He 
has, however, found such interest in its study, and 
it has opened to him such a mine of wealth, with 



xl Introduction. 

such treasures revealed at every step, that he desires 
to share these precious jewels with his fellow crafts- 
men, that they may also go further, and from the 
secret vaults bring forth for inspection other and 
greater discoveries. These jewels have not been 
concealed by accident, but by design, in order that 
they might, in some future age, be restored. Even 
the stone that was rejected, and became lost in the 
rubbish, not only bears an emblem, and contains a 
mark, but is itself, from first to last, with its sur- 
roundings, method of restoration, and final use, a 
symbol. It is the center of a five-pointed star, 
which is the kabalistic sign of man. In one direc- 
tion, it symbolizes the five senses, lost in the rubbish 
of passion and selfish gratification. When this re- 
jected or lost stone is recovered, and sent to the 
King of the temple (man's Higher-Self), and is 
recognized and restored, the arch is complete, and 
the gateway of the senses gives entrance to the 
"Palace of the King." The result is light or il- 
lumination. Such are the Illuminati. 

The writing of this book has been altogether a la- 
bor of love. It is designed to be no less a tribute 
to the Heroes and Martyrs of Masonry in the Past, 
than an humble offering to the Fraternity of the 
Present. J. D. B. 

Cincinnati, November 9, 1896. 



MYSTIC MASONRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION AND ETHICS. 

"And this to fill us with regard far man 

With apprehension of his passing worth, 

Desire to work his proper nature out, 

And ascertain his rank and final place. 

For tlhese things tend still upward, progress is 

The Law of life; man is not Man as yet. 

Nor shall I deem his object served, his end 

Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth, 

While only here and there_a_sta£ dispels 

The darkness; here and there a towering mind 

O'erlooks its prostrate fellows; when the host 

Is out at once to the despair of night; 

When all mankind alike is perfected, 

Equal in full-blown powers, then, not till then, 

I say, begins men's general infancy." 

— Browning's Paracelsus. 

So long as the struggle for bare existence in- 
volves, as it does today, the greater part of the en- 

(40 



4 2 Mystic Masonry. 

ergy, time, and opportunities of man, he will never 
discover the real meaning of manhood, or the pur- 
pose of human existence. Even this much may be 
discerned from physical evolution alone; from the 
study of the human brain, in which there is a con- 
tinually increasing portion of gray substance set free 
from the functions incident to the preservation of 
the physical structure, and evidently designed to be 
appropriated to separate and higher uses. Mere in- 
tellectual activities alone, connected with the phys- 
ical plane, with the maintenance and enjoyment of 
life, will not explain the philosophy of cerebral de- 
velopment. It is largely for this reason that the 
offices of the encephalon are so little known today. 
There are latent powers and almost infinite capabili- 
ties in man, the meaning of which he has hardly yet 
dreamed of possessing. Nor will leisure and intel- 
lectual cultivation alone reveal these powers. It is 
only through a complete philosophy of the entire 
nature of man and the capacities and destiny of the 
human soul, supplemented by the use of such knowl- 
edge, that man will eventually come into the pos- 
session of his birthright; and from this "general 
infancy" — as Browning puts it — begin the journey 
from real manhood to perfection. 

Two conditions at the present time stand squarely 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 43 

in the way of such achievements : first, anarchy and 
confusion, the result of selfishness in all social re- 
lations. This condition can be overcome in but one 
way, viz., by the recognition of the unqualified 
Brotherhood of Man; not as a theory, a religious 
duty, or a mere matter of sentiment; but as a fact 
in Nature; a universal and Divine Law; the penalty 
for the violation of which is precisely the conditions 
under which humanity now suffers. 

The second condition, which has given rise to 
"Confusion among the Workmen" in building the 
social temple and the individual habitation of man, 
is false ideals ; inefficient methods of education ; and 
almost total ignorance of the existence and the na- 
ture of the soul. The result of this ignorance may 
be seen in the fact, that not one individual in a 
million who has both leisure and opportunity, makes 
any real advancement in the evolution of the higher 
powers; or is even cognizant of the fact that he is 
a living soul. Old age is filled, not only with in- 
firmities, but with miseries without number. Not 
one in a million can say with the poet : 

"Tis the sunset of life, gives me mystical lore; 
As coming events cast their shadows before." 

In the great majority of cases with the aged, death 



44 Mystic Masonry. 

is looked upon with uncertainty or fear, or as a 
blessed release from suffering and sorrow. Life is 
thus endured as a necessary evil, and is more often 
voted by the individual to be a failure than a suc- 
cess. What life ought to be is often conceived 
from our many failures; what it might be is dimly 
perceived from the intuitions of the soul which the 
struggles and selfishness of existence have failed to 
entirely obliterate. 

These things ought not so to be, nor need they 
longer be, if earnest men and women would seek 
diligently, first for the cause of all our ills, and sec- 
ondly, for a sufficient remedy. This remedy is to be 
found, first, in Knowledge; second, in Service of 
the Truth. Let us now examine a little more in de- 
tail some of the conditions under which we suffer. 

The present is proudly designated as the Age of 
Science. The art of printing, the power of Steam 
and Electricity in applied science; the Conservation 
and Correlation of Energy, and the Theory of Evo- 
lution in speculative science, with the resulting 
details, constitute the greater part of our real dis- 
coveries. One machine is made to do the work of 
a score or more of men, while the laborers who have 
been thus displaced have no adequate share in the 
profits of mechanical invention. Those who work 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 45 

with their hands are no longer artisans, but gener- 
ally machines, a necessity as to different details for 
which no machine has yet been invented. The work 
of the laboring classes is thus reduced to the routine 
of drudgery without the hope of advancement; and, 
therefore, with no other incentive than to keep the 
wolf from the door. A manufactured article which, 
when completed, serves more often to foster ex- 
travagance and luxury than to supply a necessity, 
passes through many hands before it is completed. 
The laborer is glad even thus to serve, because idle- 
ness means starvation, and still the Army of the Un- 
employed is an ever-increasing host. The occupa- 
tion of the common laborer is even more precarious 
than that of the mechanic or the artisan. Is it any 
wonder, then, that in times of financial uncertainty, 
when thousands of laborers are out of employment 
and threatened with starvation, unable to apprehend 
the real causes of their suffering, naturally envious 
of those who are supplied with all the luxuries of 
life, and knowing that something is radically wrong 
somewhere to produce all of this inequality and in- 
justice, band together to secure what they conceive 
to be their rights by force ? 

But all this concerns mere physical existence, 
though the effects are seen on every plane of life. 



46 Mystic Masonry. 

With regard to the Science of Man, and all that 
concerns his origin, nature and destiny, individually 
or collectively, neither science nor religion has 
taught us anything. Science has given us the 
slogan — "the survival of the fittest," — a mere scien- 
tific phrasing of the motto of the Robber Barons, 
that "he may seize who hath the power, and he 
may hold who can." In the industries of life the 
result may be reduced to one word, Competition. 
In manufacture, in trade, in all professions — even 
the Clerical profession — in schools, everywhere, 
Competition, Strife, and "the survival of the fittest." 

"And this to fill us with regard for man; 
With apprehension of his passing worth, 
Desire to work his proper nature out, 
And ascertain his rank and final place." 

So far our boasted civilization is, on a gigantic scale, 
a Car of Jagannatha, and it crushes heads and hearts 
as relentlessly as the wooden idol of our heathen 
brothers, only, American-like, we do the killing by 
wholesale. 

Are not nearly the whole of the energies and 
activities of life directed to and expended upon the 
physical plane alone? And has not the struggle for 
existence increased with the great majority, in spite 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 47 

of all our boasted progress, our boasted science, and 
our Christian Civilization? We have neither the 
time, the energy, nor the disposition to discover the 
real meaning and aim of life, because all our ener- 
gies are absorbed in the bare maintenance of exist- 
ence. 

"Ah! small is the pleasure existence can give, 
When the fear we shall die only proves that we live." 

If real knowledge of the nature of the soul and the 
destiny of man had never existed, our present con- 
dition would be pitiable in the extreme; but when 
it is demonstrated that this knowledge once existed, 
that it was first degraded by selfishness and then lost 
by design, and that for centuries designing Priests, 
many of whom would have disgraced a scaffold, but 
who have been canonized as saints, have done their 
utmost to deprive humanity of this knowledge, what 
shall the humanitarian say? Shall he preach Uni- 
versal Brotherhood and Toleration, and yet seek 
revenge on the priesthood ? A thousand times, no ! 
but rather leave priest and proletariat to settle their 
own affairs and go their own way, and go to work 
ourselves to recover the lost knowledge, and when 
recovered devote it absolutely to Humanity. 

The most hopeful sign of the times is the humani- 



48 Mystic Masonry. 

tarian work being done by thousands of well-disposed 
persons who appreciate existing evils, and desire to 
get rid of them. In very few instances, however, 
the results . attained are commensurate with 
the energy or the sacrifice employed, for self- 
sacrifice is a virtue not altogether unknown to 
Christendom. But in very many instances these 
humanitarian efforts resemble an attempt to destroy 
a Upas tree, which being cut down every day grows 
again before morning. We imprison and execute 
criminals, and crime nowhere decreases. We se- 
questrate and "doctor" the insane, and insanity 
continually increases. We build hospitals for or- 
phans, the sick and the aged, and we do well; but 
orphanage, sickness and the distress and poverty 
of age grow in no wise less. It ought sometime to 
occur to us that society is all wrong, or that some- 
thing is radically wrong with all our methods. In 
the aggregate all the profits derived from scientific 
discoveries and from labor-saving machines has to 
be returned to the criminal or indigent classes. The 
only thing that we can boast of as a result is an in- 
crease in the number of millionaires ; and these, as a 
class, instead of being the fruition of a higher evo- 
lution are almost without exception the very flower 
of a Civilization of Competition and Selfishness. 



Principles of Education ana Ethics. 49 

They have created an aristocracy of wealth, very 
often by gambling or stealing, and determine the 
criterion of what is called "good society," viz.: ex- 
travagant display and vulgar pretentiousness. 

What then is really the matter with our boasted 
civilization? The answer is, ignorance and sel- 
fishness; it is the result of the "Sin of Separate- 
ness." 

If in our social and political affairs the foregoing 
are the results in spite of all scientific progress, and 
in the face of our boasted "Christian Civilization," 
in the intellectual realm, or in educational matters, 
are we any better off? Let us see. 

One of the first lessons the child is taught in 
school is Competition. It is instilled into every 
child at an early age that he should aim to be at the 
head of his class, and his exertions are continually 
incited to get ahead of his fellows. Many a young 
man or young woman graduating from literary 
institutions and carrying off the prizes for profi- 
ciency or scholarship are mental wrecks all the rest 
of their lives. Nor are the subjects taught, or the 
branches of learning mastered, such, in a great ma- 
jority of instances, as are of any great practical 
value to the student in after life. The amount of 
technical information acquired is often useful in the 



50 Mystic Masonry. 

so-called learned professions; but in the ordinary 
walks of life more often fall into disuse, and seldom 
serve the purpose of opening the higher avenues of 
knowledge, or putting the individual in possession 
of a real knowledge of himself. 

Herbert Spencer mentions five objects to be at- 
tained in the education of children: That education 
which prepares for direct self-preservation; that 
which prepares for indirect self-preservation; that 
which prepares for parenthood; that which prepares 
for citizenship; and that which prepares for the 
miscellaneous refinements of life. These objects 
set forth by one of the most profound writers of the 
present time, may be seen to pertain to self-pres- 
ervation and "getting on" in life, the last object may, 
by implication, have a Social bearing; but any 
higher knowledge, designed to put man in posses- 
sion of his real powers and to promote the evolu- 
tion of the soul, are not even mentioned. 

In all our religious instruction, from childhood, 
and through all the ministrations of religion in after 
life, we are taught to look very sharp after the 
salvation of our own souls; and this in the face of 
the statement that a very large proportion of the 
human race will eventually be utterly lost, or 
damned, for all eternity ! Science completes the pic- 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 51 

ture by trying to demonstrate that the struggle for 
existence is a necessary condition of all improve- 
ment ; and that only the sharpest tooth and the long- . 
est claw can survive. The ideal thus held aloft by 
both religion and science is selfishness. Self- 
preservation is regarded as the "first law of life." 
The result is materialism in the strictest and 
broadest sense, and this has paralyzed, where it has 
not utterly destroyed, all higher ideals. 

Is it not reasonable to suppose that if we were 
possessed of real knowledge we might so govern our 
actions, and so shape our lives as to avoid the pit- 
falls of ignorance, and set our feet on the line of 
the higher evolution? Religion offers Faith, with a 
system of rewards and punishments, and inculcates 
Charity, which is more often interpreted as the 
giving of alms ; but religion does not give us Knowl- 
edge. Science offers a theory, or a working hy- 
pothesis, but still does not give us Knowledge. So 
long as it requires all of our energies to barely 
maintain existence on the physical plane, and to 
help those who can not do even that, unaided, we 
have little opportunity to seek for higher things. 

The complicated system under which we are 
working is the result of many centuries of ignorance 
and superstition, and of many generations of evil- 



52 Mystic Masonry. 

doing, and these results cannot be changed in a day. 
Many of our modern institutions, covered over, as 
they are, with abuses and injustice, are, neverthe- 
less, so deep-rooted that they will have to work 
themselves out to the bitter end of pain, sorrow, 
and, probably, through lawlessness and bloodshed. 
This need not be, yet it would be impossible to con- 
vince, all at once, a sufficient number of individuals 
who are involved in these institutions, of the real 
cause of all our misery, and, at the same time, to 
induce them to co-operate at once to remove the 
cause. Such a thing is not to be expected, because 
of universal unbelief as to the existence of the rem- 
edy proposed; hence, retributive Justice will have 
to work out its own results. 

Is it really necessary that mankind should forever 
remain in ignorance, and forever repeat the same 
follies, and invite the retribution that we have in- 
voked ? 

In the following pages, two sources of knowledge 
have been pointed out, viz., Masonry and Philoso- 
phy, and these have been shown to take their rise, 
either directly or indirectly, from the Mysteries of 
Antiquity. The Unqualified Brotherhood of Man 
is the basis of all Ethics, and the Great Republic is 
the Ideal State. If these concepts were accepted 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 53 

and acted upon, there would result time, opportu- 
nity, and the power to apprehend the deeper prob- 
lems of the origin, nature, and destiny of man. 
"Man is not man as yet." What he may be, and 
what he might do, under favorable conditions, is 
very seldom even dreamed of. We never build be- 
yond our ideals. We habitually fall below them. 

There are a few persons in nearly every com- 
munity with whom the struggle for existence is re- 
duced to the minimum; and, undoubtedly, the ma- 
jority of these are women. Having a competency 
against want, or being amply provided for, they 
really have leisure for study and self-improvement; 
and many of these engage more or less in charitable 
work. But possessing no high ideal beyond the 
meritoriousness of charity and the self-approbation 
which it brings, and having no real knowledge as to 
the nature of the soul and the laws of its higher 
evolution, they fritter away their opportunity in 
luxury and self-indulgence, which they feel is jus- 
tified by the tribute they have already paid to char- 
ity. The result is, that they are habitually con- 
sumed with ennui; and they are as unstable as 
water in the search for a new sensation or a new 
excitement. 

If the majority of these are women who deter- 



54 Mystic Masonry. 

mine the standards and usages in what is called 
"society," the ideals of their male associates are far 
lower than theirs, and the men are saved from ennui 
by the diversity of Club Life or the necessities of 
business. The common laborer who finds continued 
employment is really less miserable oftentimes than 
these sons and daughters of fortune, who generally 
lose all zest in life, whose old age is filled with mis- 
ery over their vanished youth, and whose lives are 
frequently cut short by paresis, where they do not 
degenerate into imbecility. It is one of the most 
hopeful signs of the time that among this favored 
class an increasing number are found devoting 
themselves, their time, energy, and money, to the 
betterment of the condition of the masses. Re- 
incarnation being true, these servants of humanity 
are laying by a store of good Karma, which is lit- 
erally "treasure in heaven," and which must inevit- 
ably secure for them still broader opportunities and 
greater power for good in another life; and best of 
all, they are unfolding the higher spiritual percep- 
tions. Nothing so shrouds the Higher Self in man 
as selfishness, and this is the reason why so few per- 
sons are possessed of the direct perception that 
what is true, is True, and that what is false, is False. 
There has been for a long time a very widespread 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 55 

.aid increasing conviction that Education would 
prove a panacea for all our evils; and that if we 
could begin with the young, and have the training 
of children, we could eventually reform society, 
even though these children might be the offspring of 
vicious parentage. That "we must educate or we 
must perish" contains, no doubt, a great truth; but 
it is offset by another saying: "Education cannot 
repair the defects of birth." What real education 
is, how and when it should begin, and what, under 
the most favorable circumstances, it may be ex- 
pected to accomplish, we do not yet perceive. The 
saying that it takes at least three generations to 
make a Gentleman contains a truth, even if the 
criterion as to what constitutes a real gentleman 
may be uncertain or defective. And again, the say- 
ing, that the education of a child should begin at 
least nine months before it is born, shows that pre- 
natal conditions and influences are at least recog- 
nized as existing. But in this last direction, viz., as 
to the environment of the Mother during gestation, 
the Ancient Greeks knew far more than we, and 
enacted laws to prevent physical deformity from 
being propagated or even seen. The result was 
physical symmetry such as the world has seldom 
seen. 



56 Mystic Masonry. 

Now when all these problems are studied in the 
light of re-incarnation the greater part of all ob- 
scurity disappears. Such study teaches us what the 
Ego is, and exactly what is determined by heredity, 
and what are the individual and inalienable posses- 
sions of the Ego itself. It teaches how, by a law as 
blind as that of gravitation, because it is always ab- 
solutely just, and as inflexible as Fate, the Karma 
of the child, associates it with the Karma of the pa- 
rents, whether on the score of virtue or of vice. If 
both vice and virtue adhere to the Ego as me result 
of all former living, and are manifest in the ten- 
dencies of the individual, one way or the other, then 
the parentage, in any case, can only furnish the 
necessary conditions of expression; the opportunity 
to work out the innate tendencies. 

Now the thing that education can and ought to 
change, is these innate tendencies. This is the only 
genuine reformation ; and a great step toward this 
is gained by improvement in individual environ- 
ment. If, however, it be considered that all envi- 
ronment is the result of Karma under natural law, 
it will be seen that the most unfortunate and hope- 
less environment might sometimes afford the very 
conditions of reformation. It can be imagined that 
a really intelligent and aspiring Ego, brought by 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 57 

Karma into these unfavorable conditions as the re- 
suit of its own acts in a former life, would not only- 
put forth all of its energies to rise, but would be 
forevermore repelled by such degrading influences 
as now surround him, and flee from them as from a 
pestilence. 

Here we come face to face with the real problem 
of education. How shall we educate ? With the 
children of the poor, and even with many of those 
of the middle classes, the ordinary curriculum of 
School and College often serves to inculcate ideas 
of luxury and contempt for labor, and results, in 
many instances, in idleness and dissipation. Many 
parents are ambitious that their children should be 
educated, in order that they may escape from hard 
work, and have an easier time in life than they have 
had themselves. In morality, or ethics, the children 
are taught certain precepts, or are required to recite 
certain religious formula, such as the Creed or the 
Catechism; they are very seldom, however, taught 
unselfishness or self-conquest. The result is that 
the innate perceptions of the child, which are nat- 
urally far keener than most people are aware of, 
and which invariably, unless cultivated, become 
blunted with age and worldly experience, are utterly 
disregarded, or they are blunted by the very system 



58 Mystic Masonry. 

of competition in education to which reference has 
already been made. It may thus be seen that it 
makes all the difference in the world how we edu- 
cate, and that Ideals here are of more importance 
than almost anywhere else. 

It is true that in some of the newer colleges, 
methods are being introduced which foster individu- 
ality, and which cultivate the natural perceptions to 
an extent hitherto almost unknown. This method 
must necessarily result in putting those students who 
are so fortunate as to come under its influence in 
possession of their own faculties, and in making 
them aware of their own capabilities. This method 
must necessarily favor a strong Individuality in the 
student. Now, if this can be supplemented by a 
further knowledge of the Latent Powers of the Soul 
and with the true ideals of the higher evolution, the 
result will be something not yet apprehended by the 
majority of educators. 

In discussing the question as to what kind of 
knowledge is of the most use, Herbert Spencer 
places Scientific Knowledge in the first category; 
not alone for its practical results, but on account of 
the ideals to which it may give rise, and the broader 
apprehension to which it may lead. "Only the sin- 
cere man of science," he says, "and not the mere 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 59 

calculator of distances, or analyzer of compounds, 
or labeler of species; but him who through lower 
truths seeks higher, and eventually the highest — can 
truly know how utterly beyond, not only human 
knowledge, but human conception, is the Universal 
Power of which Nature, and Life, and Thought are 
manifestations." 

In like manner Professor Huxley makes the con- 
summation of Science to be the discernment of the 
rational order pervading the universe. It is, then, 
our methods that are most at fault and our ignorance 
that holds us down. 

It is this higher knowledge toward which all use- 
ful and rational acquirement tends; and why should 
our efforts cease short of the very highest? All 
education that does not tend in this direction, with 
the final goal consistently and continually in view, 
is false, and is necessarily a failure. Now, this higher 
knowledge is a knowledge of the Soul : of its origin, 
nature, powers, and the laws that govern its evolu- 
tion; and this is precisely the knowledge which 
modern science fails to afford, but which Ancient 
Science taught in the Mysteries of Antiquity. All 
preliminary study and training led up to this — "The 
real measure of a man." Just as all life is an evolu- 
tion, so is all real knowledge an initiation; and it 



60 Mystic Masonry. 

proceeds in a natural order, and advances by specific 
"degrees." The candidate must always be worthy 
and well qualified, duly and truly prepared. That 
is, he must perceive that such knowledge exists; 
must desire to possess it; and must be willing to 
make whatever personal sacrifice is necessary for its 
acquirement. He must have passed beyond the 
stage of blind belief or superstition, the bondage of 
fear, the age of fable, and the dominion of appetite 
and sense. This is the meaning of being "duly and 
truly prepared." He must have proved his fitness 
in these directions, no less than the absence in him 
of that subtler form of intellectual selfishness which 
comes from the possession of knowledge, and the 
desire for dominion through it over others less highly 
endowed, for selfish purposes of his own. His mo- 
tive, therefore, alone, can determine that he is 
"worthy and well qualified." 

It is true on every plane of life, that in the process 
by which knowledge is acquired — always by experi- 
ence — man becomes the thing which he knows ; that 
is, knowing is a progressive becoming. There re- 
sults, therefore, a continual transformation of the 
motives, ideals, and perceptions of the individual, 
whenever in his daily experience in life he is placed 
on the lines of least resistance or the Natural Order 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 61 

of Evolution. This is the really scientific and phil- 
osophical meaning of all Initiation. By referring to 
the chapter in which the Principles and Planes of 
Life are considered, it will be seen that the princi- 
ple just stated is the logical deduction from the idea 
of Microcosm and Macrocosm, or the philosophical 
concept that man is Involved from Divinity, and 
Evolves with Universal Nature ; and that, therefore, 
his evolution runs pari passu with that of the earth 
he inhabits. 

There is so much of the commonplace that passes 
with us for knowledge, and that is so utterly void of 
comprehension, that unless one is familiar with this 
line of thought he will not readily see the truth and 
bearing of the statement, that man always becomes 
that which he really knows. Here lies the reason 
why the mere inculcation of moral precepts so often 
fails entirely in transforming character; and why 
there is so much lip-service. In his travels through 
China and Thibet, Abbe Hue gives a graphic ac- 
count of the traveling traders whom he encountered. 
He depicts their shrewdness in trade and their gen- 
eral air of friendliness, and declares that the slogan 
forever on their lips was that "All men are 
brothers," but this did not prevent them from taking 
every possible advantage of their customers ; so easy 



62 Mystic Masonry. 

is it for a moral precept to degenerate into mere 
slang. Conscience is the struggle of the under- 
standing in assimilating experience; it is the effort 
of the individual to adjust precept with practice, or 
in other words, Conscience is that living, active 
process, resulting in the growth of the soul, and in 
the increase of man's power to apprehend truth. 

In the Ancient Mysteries, Life presented itself to 
the candidate as a problem to be solved, and not as 
certain propositions to be memorized and as easily- 
forgotten. The solution of this problem constituted 
all genuine initiation, and at every step or degree 
the problem expanded. As the vision of the can- 
didate enlarged in relation to the problems and 
meaning of life, his powers of apprehension and as- 
similation also increased proportionately. This was 
also an evolution. It may reasonably be supposed 
that the lower degrees of such initiation concerned 
the ordinary affairs of life, viz., a knowledge of the 
laws and processes of external nature: the candi- 
date's relation to these through his physical body, 
and his relations, on the physical plane, through his 
animal senses, and social instincts, to his fellow-men. 
These matters* being learned, adjusted, Mastered, the 
candidate passed to the next degree. Here he 
learned theoretically, at first, the nature of the soul ; 



Principles of Education and Ethics. 63 

the process of its evolution, and began to unfold 
those finer instincts that have been so often referred 
to in certain sections of this work. If he was found 
capable of apprehending these, and kept his "vow" 
in the preceding degree, he presently discovered the 
evolution within him of senses and faculties per- 
taining to the "soul-plane." His progress would be 
instantly arrested, and his teachers would refuse all 
further instruction, if he was found negligent of 
the ordinary duties of life; those to his family, his 
neighbors, or his country. All these must have 
been fully discharged before he could stand upon 
the threshold as a candidate for the Greater Mys-. 
teries; for in these he became an unselfish Servant 
of Humanity as a whole; and had no longer the 
right to bestow the gifts of knowledge or power 
that he possessed, upon his own kinsmen, or friends, 
in preference to strangers. In the higher degrees, 
he might be precluded from using these powers even 
to preserve his own life. Both the Master and his 
Powers belong to Humanity. If the reader will but 
reflect a moment, how the tantalizing Jews called 
upon Jesus to "save himself and come down from 
the cross," if he were the Christ, it may be seen 
that this doctrine of Supreme Selflessness ought, 
long ago, to have been better apprehended by the 



64 Mystic Masonry. 

Christian world; for while it is a Divine Attribute, 
the Synonym of the Christ, it is latent in all human- 
ity, and must be evolved as herein described. 

That which makes such an evolution seem to 
modern readers impossible, is, that it cannot be 
conceived as being accomplished in a single life, nor 
can it be. It is the result of persistent effort guided 
by high ideals through many lives. Those who deny 
Pre-existence may logically deny all such evolution. 
There must, however, come a time when the con- 
summation is reached in one life; and this is the 
logical meaning of the saying of Jesus — it is fin- 
ished. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 65 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GENIUS OF FREEMASONRY. 

"The whole world is but one Republic, of which 
each Nation is a family, and every individual a 
child. Masonry, not in anywise derogating from 
the differing duties which the diversity of States re- 
quires, tends to create a new people, which, com- 
posed of men of many nations and tongues, shall all 
be bound together by the bonds of Science, Moral- 
ity and Virtue." — Pike's Morals and Dogma, p. 220. 

"In fine, the real object of this association (Free- 
masonry) may be summed up in these words : To 
efface from among men the prejudices of caste, the 
conventional distinctions of color, origin, opinion, 
nationality; to annihilate fanaticism and supersti- 
tion, extirpate national discord, and with it extin- 
guish the firebrand of war ; in a word — to arrive, by 
free and pacific progress, at one formula or model 
of eternal and universal right, according to which 
each individual human being shall be free to de- 
velop every faculty with which he may be endowed, 



66 Mystic Masonry. 

and to concur heartily and with the fullness of his 
strength, in the bestowment of happiness upon all, 
and thus to make of the whole human race one 
family of brothers, united by affection, wisdom and 
labor." — Rebold's History of Masonry, p. 62. 

The above quotations from two of the most promi- 
nent modern writers on Freemasonry — the one deal- 
ing with the philosophical, and the other with the 
historical aspect of the subject — may fairly repre- 
sent the genius, or the Ideals and aims of Masonry. 
How far short of this ideal Masonry may fall today, 
it is no part of the object of this book to show. 
No one, however, at all familiar with the subject, 
will for a moment undertake to maintain that noth- 
ing is left to be accomplished. It is, indeed, some- 
thing grand and sublime to have conceived such an 
ideal, and to have striven in any measure toward its 
realization; and this, Masonry has done from its 
earliest history. 

There is a thread of tradition connecting modern 
Masonry with the most ancient Mysteries of An- 
tiquity. The ancient landmarks may be discovered 
in every nation and time. "Notwithstanding the 
connection that so evidently exists," says Dr. Re- 
bold, "between the ancient Mysteries and the Free- 
masonry of our day, the latter should be considered 



The Genius of Freemasonry. by 

an imitation rather than a continuation of those 
ancient Mysteries; for initiation into them was the 
entering of a school, wherein were taught art, sci- 
ence, morals, law, philosophy, philanthropy and the 
wonders and worship of nature." — Rebold's History, 
p. 62. 

The universal Science and the sublime philosophy, 
once taught in the Greater Mysteries of Egypt, 
Chaldea, Persia, and India, and among many other 
nations of antiquity, is a dead letter in modern 
Freemasonry. The intelligent Mason, however, 
should be the last person in the world to deny that 
such wisdom once existed, for the simple reason that 
the whole superstructure of Masonry is built upon 
the traditions of its existence, and its ritual serves as 
its living monument. Proficiency in the preceding 
degree is everywhere made a reason for advance- 
ment in Masonry. This proficiency is made to con- 
sist in the ability of the candidate to repeat, word 
for word, certain rituals and obligations already 
passed, the meaning or explanations of which con- 
stitute the lectures in the various degrees. The 
usage at this point, in the United States at least, 
serves rather to secure the rights and benefits of the 
Lodge to those entitled to them, and to withhold 
them from all others, than to advance the candidate 



68 . Mystic Masonry. 

in real knowledge. In other Masonic jurisdictions, 
however, a different custom prevails. Of the Bel- 
gium Lodges, for example, a Brother writes as fol- 
lows: 

"Our Lodge, called 'La Charite,' at Orient Char- 
levoi, is under obedience of the great Orient at 
Brussels, and has the Scottish Rite. No Mason is 
supposed to know anything of the ritual by heart. 
Questions and answers are read out, especially at 
initiation. The work of the Mason is supposed to be 
interior work in himself, before it can become exte- 
rior labor. So in order to obtain his degrees he has 
to do some work of his own, and no one is supposed 
to learn anything by heart, except words, signs and 
passwords. Now I have to tell you that every 
Mason is supposed to do some literary work on gen- 
eral subjects concerning the welfare of man, hu- 
man institutions, sociology, history, philosophy, 
philanthropy, etc., etc., and it is such work that a 
young Mason is supposed to do. Then, after reading 
these papers, they are discussed by all the members 
of the Lodge present, perhaps for three or four 
meetings, until the subject seems to be exhausted. 
This develops, in the young Mason, his intelligence 
and his moral feeling." 

As will be shown in a later section, this method 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 69 

conforms to that pursued in the Lesser Mysteries of 
Antiquity, which were preparatory for the Greater 
Mysteries. 

It should be borne in mind that in modern Free- 
masonry, in the Ancient Mysteries, and in all of the 
great Religions, there was always an Exoteric por- 
tion given out to the world, to the uninitiated, and 
an Esoteric portion reserved for the initiate, and re- 
vealed by degrees, according as the candidate dem- 
onstrated his fitness to receive, conceal, and rightly 
use the knowledge so imparted. Few professed 
Christians are, perhaps, aware that such was the 
case with Christianity during the first two or three 
centuries. The following quotations from Albert 
Pike's great work may therefore be of interest. On 
page 541 (et seq.) he says: 

"This, in its purity, as taught by Christ himself, 
was the true primitive religion, as communicated by 
God to the Patriarchs. It is no new religion, but 
the reproduction of the oldest of all; and its true 
and perfect morality is the morality of Masonry, as 
it is the morality of every creed of antiquity." 

St. Augustine says: 

"What is now called the Christian Religion ex- 
isted among the ancients, and was not absent from 
the human race until Christ came, from which time 



yo Mystic Masonry. 

the true religion, which existed already, began to be 
called Christian."* 

St. Augustine was Bishop of Hippo, born in 347 
a. d., and lived near enough the time of Christ to 
know whereof he wrote. 

But to continue our quotations from Morals and 
Dogma : 

"In the early days of Christianity, there was an 
initiation like those of the Pagans. Persons were 
admitted on special conditions only. To arrive at a 
complete knowledge of the doctrine, they had to pass 
three degrees of instruction. The initiates were 
consequently divided into three classes : the first, 
Auditors; the second, Catechumens; and the third, 
*He Faithful. These doctrines, and the celebration 
J I the Holy Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, 
*ere kept with profound secrecy. These Mysteries 
were divided into three parts: the first styled the 
Mass of the Catechumens ; the second, the Mass of 
the Faithful. The celebration of the Mysteries of 
Mythras was also styled a Mass, and the ceremonies 



*Quoted by Heckethorne — "Secret Societies," p. 12, 
Introduction: "They were first called Christians at 
Antioch." 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 71 

used were the same. There were found all the 
sacraments of the Catholic Church, even the breath 
of confirmation." . . "The Basilideans, a sect of 
Christians that arose soon after the time of the 
Apostles, practiced the Mysteries with the old 
Egyptian legend. They symbolized Osiris by the 
Sun, Isis by the Moon, and Typhon by Scorpio, and 
wore crystals bearing these emblems, as amulets or 
talismans, to protect them from danger, upon which 
were also a brilliant star and the serpent. They 
were copied from the talismans, of Persia and Ara- 
bia, and given to every candidate at his initiation. 
They all claimed" — (Gnostics, Marcosians, Ophites, 
etc.) — "to possess a secret doctrine, coming to then? 
directly from Jesus Christ, different from that of ti 
Gospels and Epistles, and superior to those com 
munications, which, in their eyes, were merely 
exoteric. This secret doctrine they did not com- 
municate to every one; and among the extensive 
sects of the Basilideans, hardly one in a thousand 
knew it, as we learn from Irenasus. We know the 
name of only the highest class of their initiates. 
They were styled Elect, or Elus, and 'Strangers to 
the World.' They had at least three degrees — the 
Material, the Intellectual, and the Spiritual, and the 
lesser and greater mysteries; and the number of 



j 2 Mystic Masonry. 

those who attained the highest degree was quite 
small." 

"In the Hierarchiae, attributed to St. Dionysius, 
the Areopagite, the first Bishop of Athens, the tradi- 
tion of the sacrament is said to have been divided 
into three degrees of grades — Purification, Initia- 
tion, and Accomplishment or Perfection — and it 
mentions also, as part of the ceremony, the bringing 
to sight. The Apostolic Constitutions, attributed to 
Clemens, Bishop of Rome, describe the early church, 
and say: These regulations must on no account be 
communicated to all sorts of persons, because of the 
mysteries contained in them.' " 

It is interesting to contrast the utterances of early 
Bishops of the Christian Church with the Bulls and 
Anathemas of excommunication of later Popes, 
hurled against the Masons for entertaining the same 
doctrines and practicing the same rites. But this 
was after the idea of dominion had seized the mod- 
ern church, which tolerates no rival, and would de- 
stroy all opposition. Papal supremacy must be 
maintained at any cost. 

Tertullian, who died about a. d. 216, says in his 
Apology : 

"None are admitted to the religious mysteries 
without an oath of secrecy. We appeal to your 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 73 

Thracian and Eleusinian mysteries; and we are 
specially bound to this caution, because if we prove 
faithless, we should not only provoke Heaven, but 
draw upon our heads the utmost rigor of human dis- 
pleasure." 

Clemens, Bishop of Alexandria, born a. d. 191, 
says, in his Stromata, that he can not explain the 
Mysteries, because he should thereby, according to 
the old proverb, "put a sword into the hands of a 
child." He frequently compares the discipline of 
the Secret with the "Heathen Mysteries as to their 
internal and recondite wisdom." 

Origen, born a. d. 134 or 135, answering Celsus, 
who had objected that the Christians had a concealed 
doctrine, said: 

"Inasmuch as the essential and important doc- 
trines and principles of Christianity are openly 
taught, it is foolish to object that there are other 
things that are recondite; for this is common dis- 
cipline with that of those philosophers in whose 
teachings some things were exoteric and some eso- 
teric; and it is enough to say that it was so with 
some of the disciples of Pythagoras.'' 

The formula which the primitive church pro- 
nounced at the moment of celebrating its mysteries, 
was this : "Depart ye Profane ! Let the Catechu- 



74 Mystic Masonry. 

mens, and those who have not been admitted or ini- 
tiated, go forth." 

Archelaus, Bishop of Cascara in Mesopotamia, 
who, in the year 278, conducted a controversy with 
the Manichseans, said: 

"These mysteries the church now communicates 
to him who has passed through the introductory de- 
gree. These are not explained to the Gentiles at 
all; nor are they taught in the hearing of Cate- 
chumens, but much that is spoken is in disguised 
terms, that the Faithful, who possess the knowledge, 
may be still more informed, and those who are not 
acquainted with it may. suffer no disadvantage." 

Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, was born in the year 
316 and died in 386. In his Catechesis he says : 

"The Lord spake in parables to his hearers in 
general; but to his disciples he explained in private 
the parables and allegories which he spoke in pub- 
lic." . . "Just so the church discovers its mys- 
teries to those who have advenced beyond the class 
of Catechumens : we employ obscure terms with 
others." 

St. Basil, the great Bishop of Csesarea, born in the 
year 326, and dying in the year 376, says : 

"We receive the dogmas transmitted to us by 
riting, and those which have descended to us from 



L 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 75 

the Apostles, beneath the mystery of oral tradition; 
for several things have been handed to us without 
writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dog- 
mas, should lose a due respect for them. This is 
what the uninitiated are not permitted to contem- 
plate; and how should it ever be proper to write 
and circulate among the people an account of them." 

St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople, 
a. d. 379, says: 

"You have heard as much of the mystery as we 
are allowed to speak openly in the ears of all; the 
rest will be communicated to you in private; and 
that you must retain within yourself.'" . . . "Our 
mysteries are not to be made known to strangers." 

The foregoing quotations are from Pike's Morals 
and Dogma, pp. 141, 142, 143, 144, and 145. To 
this list of witnesses are also added St. Ambrose, 
Archbishop of Milan, a. d. 340; St. Chrysostom of 
Constantinople (354-417) ; Cyril of Alexandria, 
Bishop in 412; Theodoret, Bishop of Cyropolis in 
Syria in 420, and others to the same effect. 

It is beyond controversy, that there was an exo- 
teric and an esoteric doctrine with the early Chris- 
tians ; that the esoteric doctrines were communicated 
orally in the mysteries of initiation; and that these 
mysteries conformed to and were originally derived 



y6 Mystic Masonry. 

from those of the so-called Pagan world. The Mys- 
tery of Christ received a new interpretation after the 
first Nicene Council, and as the Church sought do- 
minion, it lost the Great Secret, and since then has 
denied that it ever existed, and done all in its 
power to obliterate all its records and monuments. 
While we are concerned with Masonry rather than 
Christianity, it is, nevertheless, necessary to show 
the connecting links, in order that the "Ancient 
Landmarks" may not only be discerned, but cor- 
rectly interpreted. Neither Christianity nor Free- 
masonry is the direct and lineal descendant of the 
Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, but both are im- 
itators, and both have failed to preserve the Key of 
interpretation, and are generally unaware that such 
a Key ever existed. My contention is not against 
either Masonry or Christianity, but for the rejuve- 
nation of both, through the restoration of the Se- 
cret Doctrine to each. Modern Masonry never 
possessed the Key, while many of the early Chris- 
tian sects had it in their possession, but in time lost 
it through worldliness, the greed for earthly domin- 
ion, and the decay of Spirituality. 

Something further may be shown as to the origin 
of the Christian Mysteries. In the year 525, b. c, 
Cambyces, called "the mad," led an army into 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 77 

Egypt, overran the country, destroyed its cities, 
palaces and temples, scattered its priest-initiates, 
and reduced the country to a Persian province- 
Many of its priests took refuge in Greece, and con- 
veyed thither the Egyptian Mysteries, which Pythag- 
oras had journeyed to Egypt to obtain half a cen- 
tury earlier. In the time of Plato, a century later, 
the Mysteries were in a flourishing condition, and 
in them he learned his sublime philosophy. At the 
beginning of our era the mysteries had declined. 
There remained, however, the Gnostics, the Essenes, 
and the Therapeutae of Alexandria, and from these 
the Christian mysteries were undoubtedly derived. 
The Neoplatonists, headed by Ammonius Saccus, 
undertook to preserve the primitive revelation, and 
the utterances of the Christian Bishops to which 
I have referred, show how the Secret Doctrine was ' 
adopted from the earlier mysteries by the primitive 
Christians during the first three centuries of our 
era. After the first Council of Nice, a. d. 325, 
little more was heard of the earlier doctrines, and 
with the burning of the Great Library of Alexan- 
dria, Catholic supremacy and the dark ages oblite- 
rated the primitive wisdom in Western Europe, as 
it was also overrun by hordes of barbarians from 
the north. The principal seats of learning were 



78 Mystic Masonry. 

the convents. Coming now to the dawn of the 16th 
century, and the great Protestant Reformation, we 
find Johann Trithemius, Abbot of St. Jacob, at 
Wurtzburg, celebrated as one of the greatest of 
Alchemists and Adepts; and Cornelius Agrippi and 
Paracelsus were his pupils. John Reuchlin, a 
famous Kabalist of that time, and counted as one of 
the most learned men in his day in Europe, was the 
friend and perceptor of Luther, and Luther's first 
public utterances were a course of lectures on the 
philosophy of Aristotle. A strong effort was made 
to revive the ancient wisdom, but the age was too 
gross and superstitious, and the Reformation resulted 
in centuries of blind belief, and the suppression of 
the Secret Doctrine. 

Modern Freemasonry honors as its ancient great 
teachers Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Plato, and many 
others, and in some of its degrees gives a brief 
summary of their doctrines. Masonry, in a certain 
sense, includes them all, and has adopted their 
precepts. They were all initiates in the mysteries, 
and fundamentally their doctrines were the same. 
All taught the existence of the G. A. O. U., the 
immortality of the soul, and the unqualified Brother- 
hood of Man ; and with these primitive and funda- 
mental truths Masonry is in full accord. 



The Genius of Freemasonry^ 79 

The Guilds of Masons, or Builders, with which 
modern Freemasonry claims connection, doubtless 
suggested the name of Mason, the symbolism of a 
Builder, and perhaps the form of organization or 
advancement by degrees, as Apprentice, Fellow- 
craft and Master, representing the three degrees of 
the ancient mysteries. 

The past two or three centuries at most will 
include the whole of the history of modern Free- 
masonry. The organization is recent, but its prin- 
ciples, when clearly denned, and intelligently inter- 
preted, are eternal, and are in full accord with the 
greater mysteries of antiquity. 

The foregoing running comment on some of the 
ancient landmarks will enable us to draw compari- 
sons and derive interpretations of Masonic symbols 
and glyphs from ancient mysteries, and so to dis- 
cover the science and philosophy that constitute the 
genius of Masonry. Instead of being an imitation 
of the Mysteries of Antiquity, Masonry should be- 
come their Restoration and Perpetuation through 
the coming centuries, not by relaxing its discipline? 
or changing its ritual, but by deepening the learnings 
intensifying the zeal and elevating the aim of every 
Brother throughout the world. 



8o Mystic Masonry. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GENIUS OF FREEMASONRY. 

The traditions, glyphs and ritual of Freemasonry 
cluster around the building of the temple; the le- 
gend of the widow's son, Hiram-abirT, who lost his 
life in the defense of his integrity, and the search 
for the Lost Word of the Master. As the candidate 
progresses, degree after degree, he is furnished with 
the working-tools suited to his degree of knowledge 
and proficiency, given instruction as to their use; 
the lesser and greater lights are revealed and ex- 
plained; and through all, each outer form, or ma- 
terial thing, is shown to be a symbol of a deeper 
mystery, a concealed potency. 

This is, in brief, the language and the philosophy 
of symbolism, or the exoteric and the esoteric garb 
of Truth. The method itself, outside of all details 
or applications, has a deeper scientific significance 
than most persons are aware of. This method of 
instruction is not fanciful or arbitrary, but conforms 
to the process ,of Eternal Nature in building an 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 81 

atom or a world; a daisy or a man. Cosmos has 
evolved from Chaos, and yet Chaos remains the 
Eternal Potency; what Plato called the "World of 
Divine Ideas" This will be more fully explained 
in a subsequent chapter. For the present, it may 
suffice to say, that from primitive space, primordial 
ether, or what modern science might call the Matrix 
or origin of the "nebulous mass," the earth and all 
that it contains has evolved. The essential form, the 
idea of all things; the potency or force; and the 
matter as we now discern it, must have existed in 
primordial space. Therefore, these two always ex- 
ist, viz., the inner potency, and the outer act; the 
concealed Idea, and the outer form ; the inner mean- 
ing, and the outer event. Each is in its turn a sym- 
bol of the other. Hence the saying on the Smarag- 
dine Tablet, as above so below. All outward things 
are therefore symbols, or embodiments of pre-exist- 
ing Ideas, and out of this subjective ideal realm all 
visible things have emanated. This doctrine of 
emanations is the key to the philosophy of Plato, and 
that of the Gnostic sects from which the early 
Christians derived their mysteries. This fact is 
mentioned here in order to show the deep founda- 
tions of the glyphs of Masonry. 

In the Ritual of Masonry, King Solomon's temple 



82 Mystic Masonry. 

is taken as a symbol. The building and the restora- 
tion of the temple at Jerusalem are dramatically 
represented in the work of the Lodge, and in the 
ceremony of initiation, by a play upon words and 
parity of events, and applied to the candidate, with 
admonition, warning or encouragement, as the 
drama unfolds. The measurements and proportion 
of the temple are dwelt upon in order to bring in 
the science of numbers, form, and proportion, so 
manifest in architecture, and to connect them with 
the "spiritual temple" with which they all have the 
same, though less obvious, relations. The symbolism 
is fitted to ideal relations, rather than to actual ex- 
istences or historical events. Sol-om-on represents 
the name of Deity in three languages, and the bibli- 
cal history is doubtless an allegory or myth of the 
Sun-god. There is no reliable history of the con- 
struction of any such temple at Jerusalem, and re- 
cent explorations and measurements have greatly 
altered the dimensions as heretofore given. Hiram 
Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his 
life when the temple was near completion, and yet 
it is recorded that after the completion of the tem- 
ple he labored for years to construct and ornament 
a palace for the King. Add to these facts the state- 
ment that the temple was constructed without the 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 83 

sound of hammer or any tool of iron, and it is thus 
likened more nearly to that other "Spiritual Temple, 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens/' and 
the literal and historical features disappear, and the 
symbolism stands out in bold relief. Masonic 
Lodges are dedicated to the Sts. John ; one of whom, 
the Evangelist, opens his Gnostic Gospel with the 
Greek philosophy of the Logos, the principle of 
emanation already referred to; and the other, the 
Seer of Patmos, writes a book symbolical of ancient 
initiations, which many a non-initiate has tried in 
vain to interpret. It may thus be seen that there is 
a deep significance in the dedication of Lodges to 
the Sts. John. Take, for example, Revelations xxi, 
16: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length 
is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city 
with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The 
length, and the breadth and the height of it are 
equal" (a perfect cube). "And he measured the 
wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, 
according to the measure of a man, that is, an angel." 
The language is evidently a veil, designed to con- 
ceal the real meaning from the uninitiated. As the 
measure of man ; that is, a perfect man, or "angel," 
we have the cube as a symbol of perfect proportion. 
Hence a Square Man. The temple of Sol-om-on; 



84 Mystic Masonry. 

the Cubical City — which unfolded becomes a cross, 
and hence the "measure of a man" — all these refer 
to the work of regeneration, or initiation.* The re- 
building of the temple after the plan drawn upon the 
Trestle-board, by which it shall be like that spiritual 
temple, not made with hands, plainly refers to ini- 
tiation from which results perfect proportion and 
perfect harmony. In a later section of this work 
this mathematical and geometrical basis of virtue 
and wisdom, or knowledge and power, will be fur- 
ther explained. It is unknown to the Craft of Ma- 
sonry except in its bare outline and cruder symbol- 
ism: it is nowhere hinted that there is an inherent 
relation and full equivalent between absolute mathe- 
matics and spiritual power. 

"A very limited knowledge of the history of 
primitive worship and mysteries is necessary to en- 
able any person to recognize in the master mason, 
Hiram, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of 
the Persians, the Bacchus of the Greeks, the Atys 
of the Phrygians, of which these people celebrated 
the passion, death and resurrection, as Christians 
celebrate today that of Jesus Christ. Otherwise, 
this is the eternal and unvarying type of all the 



*See Plate XIII. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 85 

religions which have succeeded each other upon the 
earth. In an astronomical connection, Hiram is the 
representative of the Sun, the symbol of his appar- 
ent progress, which, appearing at the south gate, 
so to speak, is smote downward and more downward 
as he advances toward the west, which passing, he 
is immediately vanquished and put to death by 
darkness, represented, in following the same alle- 
gory, by the spirit of evil; but, returning, he rises 
again, conqueror and resurrected."* 

After a long and very learned discussion of the 
phonetic and philological meaning, use, and deriva- 
tion of certain god-names, Albert Pike says, 
page 79: 

"Khurum, therefore improperly called Hiram, 
is Khur-om, the same as Her-ra, Hermes, and 
Her-acles, the personification of Light and the Sun, 
the Mediator, Redeemer and Savior." 

And, again, page 81, he says: 

"It is merely absurd to add the word, 'Abif' or 
'Abiff/ as part of the name of the artificer. Abin 
(which we read Abif) means 'of my father's' . . . 
'formerly one of my father's servants' or 'slaves.' " 



*Reybold's "History of Freemasonry." Note by 
Translator, p. 392. 



86 Mystic Masonry. 

As to the Fellowcrafts concerned in the con- 
spiracy, they are shown to have more than one mean- 
ing; astronomically this relates to the signs of the 
Zodiac, the "three wicked ones" representing the 
winter solstice or death of the year, and consequent 
subjugation of the Sun-god ! Other meanings will 
be shown further on. "Is it an accidental coinci- 
dence," asks Bro. Pike, in Morals and Dogma, p. 82, 
"that in the name of each murderer are the two 
names of the Good and Evil Deities of the Hebrews ; 
for Yu-bel is but Yehu-bal or Yeho-bal; and that the 
three final syllables of the names, a, o, m, make 
A. \U. \M. *., the sacred word of the Hindoos, 
meaning the Triune-God, Life-giving, Life-preserv- 
ing, Life-destroying" (Brahma, Vishnu, Siva), "rep- 
resented by the mystic character Y." 

And, again, on page 620, Bro. Pike says: 

"This word could not be pronounced except by 
the letters; for its pronunciation as one word was 
said to make Earth tremble and even the angels of 
Heaven (elementals) to quake with fear." 

The aim of the writer at this time is to show the 
general connection of Masonic glyphs with those 
of ancient times. The real meaning will appear fur- 
ther on. 

As already declared, modern Masonry being but 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 87 

an imitation of ancient genuine Mysteries, the 
writer has no design of reading into it a meaning 
which can not be fully verified. For the greater 
part, modern Masons are dealing with symbols, the 
Key for the real interpretation of which they never 
possessed, or even suspected that it existed. It re- 
mains for the future to determine whether any con- 
siderable number of our Masonic Brethren really 
desire to possess in fuller measure the Living Truth 
which the dead-letter text conceals. That Living 
Truth exists, and is as accessible to every Mason as 
is the dead-letter or the dumb-show under which it 
masquerades in every Lodge. 

As to the sprig of Acacia, Bro. Pike says: "The 
genuine Acacia also is the thorny tamarisk, the 
same tree which grew up around the body of Osiris. 
It is a sacred tree among the Arabs, who made of 
it the Idol Al-Uzza, which Mohammed destroye4 
It is abundant as a bush in the desert of Thur, atf 
of it the 'crown of thorns' was composed, which was 
set on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a 
fit type of immortality on account of its tenacity of 
life ; for it has been known, when planted as a door- 
post, to take root and shoot out budding boughs 
above the threshold." 

Here, again, we see a symbol ages old, revived 



88 Mystic Masonry. 

and adopted in many forms, and further, that Im- 
mortality was not "brought to light" for the first 
and only time by the "Man of Sorrows" of the 
Christians ; yet in every case is the symbol none the 
less true. Whether any of these sun-gods or Re- 
deemers were historical characters or not, the sym- 
bolism teaches everywhere the same eternal truths: 
the Resurrection and the Life; Redemption and 
Immortality. 

After being obligated and brought to light, the 
candidate in the third degree is bantered with the 
statement that undoubtedly he now imagines himself 
a Master Mason. He is informed not only that such 
is not the case, but that there is no certainty that he 
ever will become such. He subsequently starts on 
his Journey for the discovery of the Lost Word. 
The method by which he undertakes to obtain it, 
and the names of the three Fellowcrafts already re- 
ferred to as brothers, have a very deep significance. 
After many trials, he receives a substitute, which he 
is to conceal with great fidelity "till future genera- 
tions shall discover the lost word." 

The method by which he receives and is ever to 
transmit or use even the substitute, is made exact 
and definite, and guarded by solemn obligations. 
The meaning of both the great secrecy and the use 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 89 

of the word are left entirely to conjecture, beyond 
the statement that it is a sacred name, and must 
never be profaned, or taken in vain, or carelessly 
used ; and I venture the opinion, that not one Mason 
among ten thousand has ever been able to discover 
why. 

The force of the obligation is therefore in the oath 
and not in the reason. As a matter of fact, the real 
reason is scientific to the last analysis; scientific to 
a degree beyond the penetration, up to the present 
time, of the "radiant matter" or the Roentgen Ray 
of Modern Science. The Word concerns the sci- 
ence of rhythmic vibrations, and is the key to the 
equilibrium of all forces and to the harmony of 
Eternal Nature. 

This tradition of the Ineffable Name is brought 
into Masonry from the Hebrew Kabalah, and how 
it became lost is partly historical, at least. The an- 
cient Hebrew Priests evidently undertook to fit to 
the names of their tribal-deities the symbolism and 
traditions of the far East. If the Master's Word 
were really a word at all, the Deity of the Hebrews 
might perhaps represent it as well as any other. It 
is a question of phonetics, however, rather than 
mere orthography. Beneath the Hebrew text of the 
Pentateuch lies concealed the science of the 



90 Mystic Masonry. 

Kabalah. The Anathemas threatened for him who 
should alter, by a single letter or "Yod," the outer 
text, had therefore a deeper meaning. The priests 
of many nations of antiquity were initiates in the 
Mysteries, and as such they were Monotheists, while 
the ignorant masses were idolaters. The monothe- 
ism of the Jews was of a robust character, and their 
priests and prophets had a hard time to preserve 
their people from the seductive polytheism and 
abominations of surrounding nations. The Ineffable 
Name was not only concealed, but "terrible as an 
army with banners." Jehovah was jealous, revenge- 
ful, vindictive toward the evil-doer, and tolerated no 
rival in the broad expanse of Cosmos. In no reli- 
gion of antiquity is the anthropomorphic image of 
Deity so strongly denned, and the Creator of man 
and worlds made so exceedingly human. 

The Kabalah, on the contrary, embodying con- 
siderable of the true and ancient Secret Doctrine, 
held a different idea of Divinity. While carrying 
the tradition, therefore, of the lost word as the In- 
effable Name of Deity, the symbolism was taken as 
literal fact, and the people who were commanded to 
"make no graven image" ended by making a 
gigantic idol, half Moloch and half Man. Amid 
such contradictions, the symbolism adopted from the 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 91 

purer and gentler Aryans was ill at ease and far 
from home. Rev. Dr. Garrison claims in a "Con- 
tribution to the History of the Lost Word," ap- 
pended to Foot's Early History and Antiquities of 
Freemasonry, that the four-syllabled name, Jehovah, 
was held by the Hebrews as the Ineffable, and that 
Adonai was used as a substitute. The Highpriest 
once every year, at the time of the atonement, en- 
tered alone into the Holy of Holies and there re- 
peated the name. The name ?:~s thus withdrawn 
from and finally lost by the common people. This 
is ingenious and too literal to cover the case. The 
old query, "What is in a name?" is, after all, not 
so easy of answer; or the answer might be, "every 
thing or nothing," according as you understand it 
or look at it. Before the introduction of the 
Masoretic points or indices of vowel sounds, the 
consonants were read by metrically intoning the 
text. The principle of the Mantram was therefore 
known to the Highpriest at least, and, therefore, the 
Word, the Name, that Known in all its plenitude 
and used with power, "caused the whole world to 
shake," may have been used or invoked in the Holy 
of Holies by the Kabalistic Hierophant. Some who 
read this may be even yet so ignorant of the potency 
of sound as to smile at the credulity and gullibility 



92 Mystic Masonry. 

that indites it; and yet so superstitious over the let- 
ters of a name as to believe them more sacred in one 
form than another ! Notwithstanding, it is the letter 
that killeth, and the Spirit (the breath) that maketh 
alive. The consonants composing the Hebrew al- 
phabet are about as sacred as so many wooden 
blocks. If one knows how to arrange the blocks, 
and endow them with life, so that they may "bud 
and blossom like Aaron's rod," that of course is a 
very different mt&ier. 

"There are dangers inseparable from Symbolism, 
which afford an impressive lesson in regard to sim- 
ilar risks attendant on the use of language. The 
imagination called in to assist the reason usurps its 
place, or leaves its ally helplessly entangled in its 
web, Names which stand for things are confounded 
with them; the means are mistaken for the ends; 
the instrument of interpretation for the object; and 
thus symbols come to usurp an independent charac- 
ter as truths and persons. Though perhaps a neces- 
sary path, they are a dangerous one, by which to ap- 
proach the Deity; in which many, says Plutarch, 
mistaking the sign for the thing signified, fell into a 
ridiculous superstition, while others, in avoiding one 
extreme, plunge into the no less hideous gulf of 
irreligion and impiety." . . . 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 93 

"It is through the mysteries, Cicero says, that we 
have learned the first principles of life, wherefore 
the term 'initiation' is used with good reason." . . . 

"To employ nature's universal symbolism instead 
of the technicalities of language, rewards the 
humblest inquirer and discloses its secrets to every 
one in proportion to his preparatory training to 
comprehend them. If their philosophical meaning 
was above the comprehension of some, their moral 
and political meanings are within the reach of 
all." . . . 

"These mystic shows and performances were not 
the reading of a lecture, but the opening of a 
problem. Requiring research, they were calculated 
to arouse the dormant intellect. They implied no 
hostility to Philosophy, because Philosophy is the 
great expounder of symbolism."* 

There is a Grand Science known as Magic, and 
every real Master is a Magician. Feared by the 
ignorant, and ridiculed by the "learned" the Divine 
Science and its Masters have, nevertheless, existed 
in all ages, and exist today. Masonry in its deeper 
meaning and recondite mysteries constitutes and 
possesses this Science, and all genuine Initiation 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 64. 



94 Mystic Masonry. 

consists in an orderly unfolding of the natural 
powers of the neophite, so that he shall become the 
very thing he desires to possess. In seeking Magic, 
he finally becomes the Majus. All genuine Initiation 
is, like evolution and regeneration, from within. 
Devoid of this inner meaning and power, all rituals 
are but foolish jargon, and all ceremonies an empty 
farce. Even such the rituals of Masonry have be- 
come to many. That the Christ-life and the power 
that made Jesus to be called Christos, Master, 
whereby he healed the sick, cast out devils, and 
foretold future events, is the same- Life revealed and 
attained by initiation in the Greater Mysteries of 
Antiquity, is perfectly plain. The disrepute into 
which the Divine Science has fallen has arisen from 
its abuse and degredation. 

In the middle ages, and in fact, in every age 
there have been dabblers in magic; sorcerers 
and necromancers, who, possessing some of the 
secrets, and imbued with none of its beneficence, 
have used their knowledge and power for purely 
personal and selfish ends. Hypnotism and Phe- 
nomenal Spiritualism are sufficient illustrations of 
the power to which I refer, and the abuse to which 
it may be put. Magic, per se, is always a Science, 
and up to a certain point it may be cultivated with- 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 95 

out regard to its use, or the well-being of man; 
although any abuse of it is fatal to the magician. 

The popular idea is that education consists largely 
in the cultivation of the intellectual powers. An 
average standard of morals is always recommended 
by educators, and its outer form is illustrated by 
religious ceremonies. But intellectual cultivation 
alone, no matter to what extent it may be carried — 
and the further it goes in this one-sided way the 
worse for all concerned — is in no sense an evolution. 
Perfect intellectual development, without spiritual 
discernment and moral obligation, is the sign-manual 
of Satan. Intelligence, without goodness, lies 
athwart the Divine Plan in the evolution of Cosmos. 
Intellect and Altruism by no means necessarily go 
hand in hand. One may have a very clear intellect, 
have quick perceptions, and be a good reasoner, and 
yet be very wicked. On the other hand, one may be 
very dull intellectually, and yet be kind, brotherly 
and sympathetic to the last degree. A world made 
up of the former would be -a bad place to live in; if 
of the latter, a thousand times to be preferred. 
Magic contemplates that all-around development 
which, liberating the intellect from the dominion of 
the senses and illuminating the spiritual perceptions, 
places the individual on the lines of least resistance 



96 Mystic Masonry. 

with the inflexible laws of nature, and he becomes 
nature's co-worker or hand-maid. To all such, 
Nature makes obeisance, and delegates her powers, 
and they become Masters. The real Master con- 
ceals his power and uses it only for the good of 
others. He works "without the hope of fee or 
reward." 

Discerning that knowledge is power, designing 
and evil men desire to possess both knowledge and 
power for entirely selfish purposes. It may be read- 
ily discerned that the more knowledge and power a 
purely selfish man possesses, the more inimical to 
humanity he becomes. He can do less harm if kept 
in ignorance. This is especially the case in regard 
to those deeper sciences which deal with mind, and 
influence the thoughts and actions of others. Sup- 
pose one were able to hypnotize large numbers of 
persons at once, and compel them to do his bidding; 
and that his motives were not only selfish, but all 
results injurious to his agents. Such a person would 
be a Magician, and, as his motive would be purely 
selfish, a "Black Magician." Modern Science, 
purely materialistic in its aims and conclusions, has 
always, till very recently, ridiculed the idea em- 
bodied in Magic, and were it not for the fact that it 
has been compelled to recognize, under the name 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 97 

Hypnotism, since the time of Braid, the very force 
which it denied and condemned in the days of Mes- 
mer, it might be difficult to find a palpable and un- 
deniable illustration of what kind of power is in- 
volved in Magic. 

But Hypnotism is not even the alphabet of the 
vocabulary known to the real Master or Magician. 
It is but an empirical dabbling in a power of gigan- 
tic proportions, the key to which makes of its pos- 
sessor either a Savior or a Destroyer of his fellow- 
men. 

We have only to reflect on the use already made 
of Hypnotism for public exhibitions, for personal 
greed, by its "Professors" — God save the mark — 
to determine whether any larger output of Occult 
knowledge would be desirable or beneficial to man- 
kind at large. 

The traditional-Lost Word of the Master is a 
key to all the science of Magic. The knowledge of 
the Master is not empirical. It does not consist of 
a few isolated formulae by which certain startling or 
unusual effects can be produced. The Magician's 
art is based on a science far more deep and exact 
than modern physical science has yet dreamed of, 
and back of this science lies a philosophy as bound- 
less as Cosmos, as inexhaustible as Time, and as 



98 Mystic Masonry. 

beneficent as the "Father in Heaven." If the 
Masonic meaning of Master: Perfect and Sublime 
Master: Prince Adept: etc., is less than I have indi- 
cated, then it is a roaring farce, or a stupendous 
humbug. The conception of Masonry is true, but 
it has adopted or imitated the ritual and glyphs of 
a science, the key to which not one Mason in ten 
thousand possesses, and hence the tradition of the 
Lost Word has a literal, no less than a symbolical 
meaning. The "Substitute" is given to the ne- 
ophite — "till future generations shall find the True 
Word." The question now propounded to every 
"obligated," or so-called Master Mason, is — is the 
present 'the generation in which that which was lost 
shall be found? and each must answer for himself 
singly; just as he entered his lodge, first saw the 
light, and took his obligation; just as every real 
Master, or "White Adept," has done since the begin- 
ning of time. There exists in Masonic literature 
many learned essays on the history, orthography and 
philology of the Lost Word; but I am acquainted 
with no treatise that apprehends the nature of the 
real secret like that of Brother Albert Pike in his 
great work, and yet, if he knew the whole secret, 
he concealed it at last. 

The more immediate source from which the le- 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 99 

gend is imported into Masonry is the Jewish Kaba- 
lah, derived doubtless from the Chaldean and 
Zoroasterian form of the Secret Doctrine; the prin- 
ciples and methods of which were unfolded by the 
late lamented Bro. J. Ralston Skinner, A. & A. S. 
R. 32 . Bro. Skinner's greater works, however, 
aside from his Source of Measures, and a large 
number of pamphlets, exist only in Manuscript, and 
are of so abstruse a character as to be of little use 
except to profound scholars. Running all through 
the Talmud are found references to the Secret Wis- 
dom, while the Sohar, the Kabalah Denudata, and 
other Kabalistic works are all written with a veil 
designed to conceal the secret from the uninitiated, 
and to be meaningless without the key. Bro. Skin- 
ner's discoveries were the reward of genius, made 
as the result of stumbling on one of the keys that 
"unlock the Golden Gates of the Palace of the 
King." His discoveries lay the foundation for a 
systematic and scientific study of the Kabalistic 
form of the Secret Doctrine which lies concealed 
beneath the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch, and 
which no commentary has ever revealed or intended 
to reveal. Perhaps another generation of biblical 
Hebrew Scholars may discard their preconceptions, 
prejudices and superstitions of the mere verbiage of 



ioo Mystic Masonry. 

the text sufficiently to desire to discover the real 
meaning of the Pentateuch, as to the creation of 
Men and Worlds. Copies of Bro. Skinner's unpub- 
lished researches have been so placed by his special 
desire and act, that they may be preserved for such 
future investigators and not again be lost to the 
world. 

But the Hebrew Kabalah is but one of many 
sources from which the Secret Science may be de- 
rived, and it is not the one which in its form of Sym- 
bolism and method of interpretation is best fitted to 
the present age. When the symbolism of the Ka- 
balah is read by the key furnished by Bro. Skinner, 
it requires to be again translated into modern ideas 
or forms of thought. The basis of it was the Chal- 
dean Book of Numbers, no genuine copy of which, 
if in existence, is accessible to modern students. 
Several spurious copies are known to exist, and it is 
possible that a genuine copy may be produced at the 
proper time. For be it remembered that Genuine 
Masters, "Prince Adept Masons," have always ex- 
isted, and no book or record worth preserving or 
necessary for the good of man is ever lost. In se- 
cret crypts, alike inaccessible to the vandal hand of 
man, and the corrosion of time and decay, these 
treasures are said to be preserved. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. ioi 

All human progress runs in cycles. Modern ma- 
terialistic science has had its brief day, and Philos- 
ophy has already undermined its foundations. The 
new age will show a genuine revival of Philosophy. 

The immortal principles enunciated by Plato, 
clothed in modern garb of thought, less involved 
and dialectical, will again command the attention 
of the thinking world. Every one is aware that the 
source of Plato's knowledge was the Mysteries; he 
was an Initiate, and on almost every page reveals 
the obligation he is Under not to betray to the com- 
mon people the secrets taught only to initiates under 
the pledge of secrecy. 

The foregoing digression seemed necessary in 
order to show the real basis for the traditions of the 
Lost Word, and to put beyond cavil, at least with 
the more rational, the idea that the Master's Word 
is a real thing, the genuineness and power of which 
is not overdrawn in the parables and glyphs of 
Freemasonry. 

"The True Word of a Mason is to be found in 
the concealed and profound meaning of the Ineffable 
Name of Deity communicated by God to Moses" 
(rather by the Priests of Egypt. — B.), "and which 
meaning was long lost by the very precautions taken 
to conceal it. The true pronunciation of that name 



102 Mystic Masonry. 

was in truth a secret, in which, however, was in- 
volved the far more profound secret of its mean- 
ing." . . . 

"Thus the Ineffable Name not only embodies the 
great Philosophical Idea, that the Deity is the Ens, 
the To On, the absolute Existence, that of which the 
Essence is To Exist, the only Substance of Spinoza, 
the Being, that never could not have existed, as con- 
tra-distinguished from that which only becomes ; not 
Nature or the Soul of Nature, but that which created 
Nature; but also the idea of the Male and Female 
Principles, in its highest and most profound sense : 
to wit, that God originally comprehended in Him- 
self all that is; that matter was not co-existent with 
Him or independent of Him; that He did not 
merely fashion and shape a pre-existing chaos into a 
universe; but that His Thought manifested itself 
outwardly in that universe, which so became, and 
before was not, except as comprehended in Him; 
that the Generative Power, or Spirit, and the Pro- 
ductive Matter, ever among the ancients deemed the 
Female, originally were in God, and that He Was 
and Is all that Was, that Is, and that Shall be; in 
whom all else lives, moves, and has its being." 
"This was the great Mystery of the Ineffable Name, 
. . . and of course its true pronunciation and its 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 103 

meaning became lost to all except the select few to 
whom it was confided; it being concealed from the 
common people, because the Deity, thus metaphys- 
ically named, was not that personal and capricious, 
and, as it were, tangible God in whom they believed, 
and who alone was within reach of their rude capac- 
ities. . . . This was the profound truth hidden 
in the ancient allegory and covered from the general 
view with a double veil. This was the exoteric 
meaning of the generation and production of the 
Indian, Chaldean, and Phoenician Cosmogonies; of 
the Active and Passive Powers; of the Male and 
Female Principles; of Heaven and its Luminaries 
generating, and the Earth producing; all hidden 
from vulgar view, as above its comprehension; the 
doctrine that matter is not eternal, but that God was 
the only original Existence, the Absolute, from 
Whom everything has proceeded, and to Whom all 
returns. . . . And this True Word is with en- 
tire accuracy said to have been lost, because its 
meaning was lost even among the Hebrews, although 
we still find the name (its real meaning unsus- 
pected) in the Hu of the Druids and Fo-Hi of the 
Chinese."* 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 700 et seq. 



104 Mystic Masonry. 

"There is in nature one most potent force, by 
means whereof a single man, who could possess 
himself of it, and should know how to direct it, 
could revolutionize and change the face of the 
world. 

"This force was known to the ancients. It is a 
universal agent, whose supreme law is equilibrium; 
and whereby, if science can but learn how to con- 
trol it, it will be possible to change the order of the 
Seasons ; to produce in night the phenomena of day ; 
to send a thought in an instant round the world; to 
heal or slay at a distance ; to give our words uni- 
versal success, and make them reverberate every- 
where." This agent, partially revealed by the blind 
guesses of Mesmer, is precisely what the Adepts of 
the middle ages called "elementary matter of the 
great work."* And this is the force of the Keely 
Motor, and the Frohat of the Secret Doctrine. But 
to continue our quotations: 

"There is a Life-Principle of the world, a uni- 
versal agent, wherein are two natures and a double 
current of love and wrath. This ambient fluid per- 
vades everything. It is a ray detached from the 
glory of the Sun, and fixed by the weight of the at- 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 734. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 105 

mosphere and the central attraction. It is the body 
of the Holy Spirit, the Universal Agent, the Ser- 
pent devouring his own tail." (See the Seal of the 
T. S.) 

"With this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and 
luminous caloric, the ancients and the alchemists 
were familiar. Of this agent that phase of modern 
ignorance termed physical science talks incoher- 
ently, knowing naught of it save its effects; and 
theology might apply to it all its pretended defini- 
tions of spirit." 

"Quiescent, it is appreciable by no human sense; 
disturbed, or in movement, none can explain its 
mode of action (except a real Master), and to term 
it a 'fluid' and speak of its 'currents/ is but to veil 
a profound ignorance under a cloud of words."* 

"The Kabalah alone consecrates the alliance of 
the Universal Reason and Divine Word; it estab- 
lishes, by the counterpoise of two forces apparently 
opposite, the eternal balance of being; it alone 
reconciles Reason with Faith, Power with Liberty, 
Science with Mystery; it has the keys of the Pres- 
ent, the Past, and the Future." 

"The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, ex- 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 734. 



106 Mystic Masonry. 

presses, in an incomplete and veiled manner only, 
the religious science of the Hebrews. The doctrine 
of Moses and the prophets, identical at bottom with 
that of the ancient Egyptians, also had its outward 
meaning and its veils. The Hebrew books were 
written only to recall to memory the traditions ; and 
they were written in Symbols unintelligible to the 
Profane. The Pentateuch and the prophetic poems 
were merely elementary books of doctrine, morals 
or liturgy ; and the true secret and traditional philos- 
ophy was only written afterward, under a veil still 
less transparent. Thus was a second Bible born, 
unknown to, or rather uncomprehended by, the 
Christians"' (of later times), "a collection, they say, 
of monstrous absurdities; a monument, the adept 
says, wherein is everything that the genius of phi- 
losophy and that of religion have ever formed or 
imagined of the Sublime; a treasure surrounded by 
thorns ; a diamond concealed in a rough dark stone." 
"One is filled with admiration on penetrating into 
the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine 
so logical, so simple and at the same time so abso- 
lute. The necessary union of ideas and signs, the 
consecration of- the most fundamental realities by 
the primitive characters ; the Trinity of Words, Let- 
ters and Numbers; a philosophy simple as the al- 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 107 

phabet, profound and infinite as the World; The- 
orems more complete and luminous than those of 
Pythagoras; a theology summed up by counting on 
one's fingers; an Infinite which can be held in the 
hollow of an infant's hand; ten ciphers and twenty- 
two letters, a triangle, a square and a circle — these 
are all the elements of Kabalah. These are the 
elementary principles of the written Word, reflection 
of that spoken W T ord that created the world."* 

And so we might go on quoting from this real 
"Master of the Veils," this genuine Prince Adept 
among Masons, whose great work, even as a com- 
pilation, is a monument more enduring than brass, 
and more honorable than the crown of kings. If he 
did not comprehend to the last veil all that he tran- 
scribed — and he too used veils — he discerned enough 
to teach him how to find the whole. It may thus 
be seen that the Holy Bible as one of the Great 
Lights in Masonry has a very profound meaning 
when coupled with the tradition of the Ineffable 
Name, or Lost Word. The object set before the 
neophite in his search for the Lost Word, is, that he 
may travel in foreign countries and receive Master's 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 475. 



108 Mystic Masonry. 

wages.t This glyph in its outer form is taken from 
the guilds of practical Masons of two or three cen- 
turies ago. The laws then governing the Mark of 
a Fellowcraft or a Master Builder were very strict, 
and the Mark was never bestowed unworthily, and 
when received was a passport among builders over 
a wide domain. But in a deeper, or Kabalistic sense, 
the Master's Word, which entitled its possessor to 
Master's wages, was a very different thing indeed. 
The wages of the real Master were the satisfaction 
and the power that flow from the possession of real 
knowledge. Knowledge is power only when one 
comprehends that which he possesses, and is, there- 
fore, enabled to use it for the purposes that lie near- 
est his heart. Bro. Pike shows conclusively that the 
power of the Word lies in the knowledge of the 
Philosophy which is its perfect synthesis. This is, 
in part, the meaning of "knowing how to pronounce 
the Word." 

As already stated, the Kabalah of the ancient He- 
brews, which Moses derived by initiation into the 
mysteries of Egypt and Persia, and which Pike and 
many others declare was identical among the He- 



t The wages of a real Master is Knowledge and 
Power to travel where he will in space. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 109 

brews, the Egyptians, Hindus and other nations of 
antiquity, was known as the Secret Doctrine. The 
reason for such a name is fully revealed in what has 
been shown hitherto. What Pike says regarding the 
relation of the Pentateuch to the Kabalah, is true 
of the exoteric scriptures of every nation of an- 
tiquity. 

How many generations of imbeciles or material- 
ists, think you, my Brother, would it require to re- 
cover it? The great majority of mankind in every 
age not only do not possess the secret and the power 
of the Master's Word, but are incapable of com- 
prehending it. We do not know a thing because we 
are told that it is so. Let the gods shout the truth of 
all the ages into the ears of a fool forever, and still 
forever the fool would be joined to his folly. Here 
lies the conception and the principle of all initia- 
tions. It is knowledge unfolded by degrees in an 
orderly, systematic manner, step by step, as the 
capacity to apprehend opens in the neophite. The 
result is not a possession, but a growth, an evolu- 
tion. Knowledge is not a mere sum in addition; 
something added to something that already exists; 
but rather such a progressive change or transfor- 
mation of the original structure as to make of it 
at every step a New Being. Real Knowledge, or the 



no Mystic Masonry. 

growth of Wisdom in man, is an Eternal Becoming; 
a progressive transformation into the likeness of the 
Supernal Goodness and the Supreme Power. 

Initiation and Regeneration are synonymous 
terms. 

The ritual of Freemasonry is based on this natural 
law, and the ceremony of initiation illustrates, at 
every step, this principle, and if the result attained 
'is a possession rather than a regeneration, in the 
great majority of cases, the principle remains none 
the less true. The mere inculcation of moral prin- 
ciples, or lessons in ethics, and their symbolic illus- 
tration and dramatic representation, are by no means 
in vain. These appeal to the conscience and moral 
sense in every man, and no man has ever been made 
worse by the Lessons of the Lodge. By these 
"rites and benefits" the Freemason is, above all 
men, in our so-called Modern Civilization, the near- 
est to the Ancient Wisdom. He has possession of 
the territory in which lie concealed the Crown Jew- 
els of Wisdom. He may content himself, if he will, 
by merely turning over the sod and gathering only 
a crop of husks or stubble. He may dig deeper and 
find not only the Keystone of the Arch, the Ark 
of the Covenant, the Scroll or the Law, but, using 
the spirit concealed in the wings of the Cherubim, 



The Genius of Freemasonry. in 

he may rise untrammeled by the rubbish of the tem- 
ple, and, meeting Alohim face to face, learn also to 
say / am that I am! Does this read like a rhap- 
sody, and are the Landmarks, traditions, and glyphs 
of Freemasonry nothing more ? 

The real temple referred to from first to last in 
Masonry, as in all ancient initiations, is the Taber- 
nacle of the Human Soul. 

It is built, indeed, without the sound of hammer 
or any tool of iron. It is like (made in the likeness 
of) that other, spiritual temple, not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens ; for the old philosophy 
(Kabalah) teaches that the Immortal Spirit of man 
is the artificer of the body and its source of life; 
that it does not so much enter in, as overshadow 
man, while the Soul, the immediate vehicle of the 
Spirit, inhabits the body, and is dissipated at death. 
The Spirit is Immortal, pure, and forever undefiled. 
It is Christos, or Hiram, the Mediator between the 
Soul, or physical man, and the Universal Spirit — 
the Father in Heaven. The "poor, blind candidate," 
that is, the man of sense, immersed in matter, would 
learn the Ineffable Name, and obtain the Lost Word, 
and, seeking a short cut, "climbs up some other 
way." He would have wisdom without self- 
conquest, power without sacrifice. He will not lis- 



ii2 Mystic Masonry. 

ten to the voice of pleading, "Be patient, my 
brother, and when the temple is completed, if found 
worthy, you shall receive that for which you have 
so long wrought." No! he will have it now! and 
he silences the pleading voice, and, defeating only 
himself, flees into the deserts of remorse and calls 
upon the rocks to hide him from the pursuit of his 
accusing conscience. Hiram (Christos) is resur- 
rected. Being immortal, he can not really die. No 
sin of man is final. Realizing his error and purified 
by suffering, the spirit in man being again lifted up, 
even defeat gives promise of victory, and he re- 
ceives a Substitute for the Lost Word. He hears, 
however faint or dim, the Divine Harmony. Future 
generations, that is, further trials and more sincere 
endeavor, promise greater reward. He learns to 
"know, to will, to dare, and to keep silent." 
Brotherly love, Relief and Truth; Prudence, Forti- 
tude, Justice and Mercy — all the Virtues and all the 
Beatitudes are inculcated. 

The candidate is taught, not merely to tolerate an- 
other's religion, but to respect it as his own ; though 
still adhering to that into which he was born. To 
make reasonable this obligation, he is shown through 
the Kabalah or Secret Doctrine that at the heart 
of every great religion lie the same eternal truths. 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 113 

Forms and observances only differ. The Ineffable 
Name is spelled in many ways, yet the Word is one 
and eternal. Masonry is not only a universal sci- 
ence, but a world-wide religion, and owes allegiance 
to no one creed, and can adopt no sectarian dogma, 
as such, without ceasing thereby to be Masonic. 
Drawn from the Kabalah, and taking the Jewish 
or Christian verbiage or symbols, it but discerns in 
them universal truths, which it recognizes in all 
other religions. Many degrees have been Chris- 
tianized only to perish; as every degree eventually 
will if circumscribed by narrow creeds, and dwarfed 
to the bigoted apprehension, so as to exclude good 
men of any other communion. Is Jesus any the less 
Christos, because Christna was called "the Good 
Shepherd"? or because the Mexican Christ was 
crucified between two thieves? or because Hiram 
was three days in a grave before he was resur- 
rected? Are we not as selfish in our religion as in 
our other possessions? Then why is man, while 
cherishing as his most sacred possession, the reli- 
gion of his fathers, eternally seeking to degrade and 
destroy that of his brother? 

The Great Republic, to which Bro. Pike refers, is 
the Ideal of Masonry ; the Genius that hovers like 
a protecting angel over the Lodge. Make it impos- 



H4 Mystic Masonry. 

sible for a Jew or Parsee, Buddhist or Brahmin, to 
enter any Lodge without witnessing the profanation 
of his sacred altars or contempt for his religion, and 
the angel hides her face and retreats from altars 
already profaned by unbrotherliness. Masonry is 
the Universal Religion only because, and only so 
long as, it embraces all religions. For this reason, 
and this alone, it is universal and eternal. Neither 
persecution nor misrepresentation can ever destroy 
it. It may find no place in a generation of bigots; 
it may retire for a century; but again comes a Mas- 
ter Builder with the Key to the "Shut Palace of 
the King," throws open the blinds, lets in the light, 
kindles anew the fire on the sacred altar, clears 
away the rubbish, when behold ! the tesselated pave- 
ment is as bright as when it first came from the quar- 
ries of truth, the jewels are of pure gold and 
brighten at the touch, and the great lights are un- 
dimmed and undecayed. "When the candidate is 
ready the Master appears." And vet men are so 
foolish and so vile as to imagine that they can de- 
stroy this heirloom of the ages; this heritage from 
the Immortals ! No age is so dark as to quench en- 
tirely the light of the Lodge; no persecution so 
bloody as to blot out its votaries; no anathemas of 
Popes so lasting as to count one second on its Dial 



The Genius of Freemasonry. 115 

of Time ! These, one and all, serve only to keep 
the people in darkness, and retard the reign of Uni- 
versal Brotherhood. Therefore for humanity — the 
Great Orphan — the real Master laments. He smiles 
at the passions of Popes or Kings and pities the 
folly of man. He only waits indifferent as to re- 
sults, knowing these to be under eternal law; but 
ready and willing, whenever and wherever the in- 
struction entering the listening ear may find lodg- 
ment in the faithful breast. For ages Kings, Popes 
and Synods have done their best to kill this Secret 
Doctrine by anathematizing or burning its Masters. 
The Jesuits got possession of its Lodges, trans- 
formed out of all recognition many of its degrees, 
and made of them an abject tool of the Sacerdotal 
hierarchy. 

But at last the Jesuits became glutted with gold 
and impudent with power, and the Church became 
frightened and destroyed or banished the destroyers. 
Will power in high places ever desist or relax its 
warfare ? Never ! It can, however, be forever ig- 
nored or defied; but it will never allow its secrets 
to be laid bare, and a greater to stand in its place. 
He who anticipates such beneficence has read his- 
tory in vain. The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by 
force, but it is moral force, or moral courage, and 



n6 Mystic Masonry. 

the first great battle is for the conquest of self; the 
subjugation of that time-serving spirit, which, joined 
to the idols of the flesh, is blind to the truths of the 
eternal spirit. He who conquers here may at last 
become Master. 



The Secret Doctrine. 117 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SECRET DOCTRINE. 



"The true Mason is a practical Philosopher who, 
under religious emblems, in all ages adopted by- 
wisdom, builds upon plans traced by nature and 
reason the moral edifice of Knowledge."* "As 
Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, it is your es- 
pecial duty to aid in restoring Masonry to its primi- 
tive purity."* 

"Among all the ancient nations there was one 
faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, 
intelligent, and educated, and another for the 
common people. To this rule the Hebrews were 
no exception."? "It (Masonry) is philosophical, be- 
cause it teaches the great Truths concerning the 
nature and existence of one Supreme Deity, and the 
existence and immortality of the soul."|| "The 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 268. t Ibid. 

JIbid. 303. 1 1 Ibid. 221. 



n8 Mystic Masonry. 

Universe, which is the uttered Word of God, is in- 
finite in extent. There is no empty space beyond 
creation on any side. The Universe, which is the 
Thought of God pronounced, never was not since 
God never was inert."* 

"I, Myself, never was not, nor thou, nor all the 
Princes of the Earth; nor shall we ever hereafter 
cease to be."t 

"Every thing emanates from a Single Principle 
and a primitive Love, which is the Moving Power 
of All, and governs all." 

"Masonry teaches and has preserved in its purity 
the cardinal tenets of the old primitive faith, which 
underlie and are the foundation of all religions. "Z 

There is no fact in history more easily and com- 
pletely demonstrable than the existence of the Secret 
Doctrine in all ages among all people, and of Adepts 
or Masters who were familiar with its teachings, 
and were more or less capable of expounding its 
principles. 

It is equally demonstrable that this Secret Doc- 
trine was the real foundation of every great Religion 
known to man; that only the initiated Priest or 



*Morals and dogma, p. 206. tBhagaradgita. 

tlbid. 324. 



The Secret Doctrine. 119 

Hierophant knew the real doctrines in any case, and 
only these, as a rule, in the earliest history of each 
religion. 

Furthermore, the Sacred Books of all religions, 
including those of the Jews and the Christians, were 
and are no more than parables and allegories of the 
real Secret Doctrine, transcribed for the ignorant 
and superstitious masses. All commentaries written 
on these Sacred Books, whether on those of Moses, 
the Psalms and the Prophets of Judaism, the Gos- 
pels of the Gnostics and Christians, or those written 
on the Sacred Books of the East — the Vedas, Pura- 
nas, and Upanishads — all either make confusion 
more confounded when written by one ignorant of 
the Secret Doctrine, or, when written by initiates, 
but ring the changes on, or further elaborate the 
parables and allegories. 

It is, furthermore, easily demonstrable that the 
Secret Doctrine came originally from the far East, 
and is the Primitive Wisdom Religion. Its earlier 
records are now found in India and Thibet; thence 
it seems to have traveled to Ethiopia; thence to 
Egypt and Chaldea. This route, or order of trans- 
mission, however, is not to be easily ascertained 
with accuracy, nor is it a matter of any consequence 
to us at the present time. It is everywhere and at 



120 Mystic Masonry. 

all times essentially the same; only the outer gloss, 
the parables and allegories concealing it differ 
among different people. 

Underlying this Secret Doctrine was a profound 
philosophy of the creation or evolution of worlds 
and of man. The present humanity, in many quar- 
ters of the globe, has evolved on the intellectual 
plane so far that there now exist a very large num- 
ber of persons capable of apprehending this old 
philosophy, and, at the same time, capable of under- 
standing the responsibility incurred in misusing or 
misinterpreting it. A large number of persons have 
reached, on the intellectual plane, the state of man- 
hood; and are capable of partaking of the "fruit 
of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil." 
There is, therefore, no reason why this old philos- 
ophy should be longer concealed. On the other 
hand, there are reasons why it should be known. 
Empirical knowledge has advanced in certain direc- 
tions into the realm of Psychism, and the arts an- 
ciently designated by the term Magic, and it is im- 
perative that the dangers that attend these pursuits 
should be pointed out and demonstrated, in order 
that they may be avoided by the beneficent, and that 
the ignorant or innocent may be afforded protec- 
tion. How far these modern inroads into Occultism 



The Secret Doctrine. 121 

or ancient Magic extended very few persons seem 
to realize. It is therefore high time that the philos- 
ophy of the East should illumine the science of the 
West, and thus give the death blow to that intellect- 
ual diabolism, and spiritual nihilism, known as 
Materialism, and this only the Secret Doctrine can 
accomplish. Grave responsibility, however, is in- 
curred by such a revelation. Those who, like the- 
professional Hypnotists and the Vivisectionists, 
have sinned, perhaps ignorantly, and thus have been 
unconsciously "Black Magicians," will eventually 
find no avenue of escape. Ignorance can no longer 
cover their inhuman or cruel practices. The Hyp- 
notist can not reduce the mind of a trusting but 
ignorant brother to the condition of imbecility, with- 
out facing the law that counts such a crime as no 
less than murder. The new Science, resulting from 
the union to which I have referred, and which, I 
believe, Mr. J. M. Rusk proposes to call Psycho- 
Physics, will be well understood before the close of 
the 20th century, and many an old score in the 
intellectual arena will be settled. 

They know little of the forces at work, or the 
principles involved, who imagine that there is suffi- 
cient force in dissolving creeds, or in the dying 
throes of materialism, to greatly retard the progress 



122 Mystic Masonry. 

of these truths by sneers or ridicule, or to prevent 
their triumph by any opposition they can bring to 
bear against them. They have waited for millen- 
niums, and their time has come. 

"To recapitulate; the Secret Doctrine was the 
universally diffused religion of the ancient and pre- 
historic world. Proof of its diffusion, authentic 
records of its history, a complete chain of docu- 
ments, showing its character and presence in every 
land, together with the teaching of all its great 
Adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of 
libraries belonging to the Occult Fraternity." As 
to the danger of revealing these doctrines to the 
profane : 

"The danger was this: Doctrines such as the 
planetary chain, or the seven races, at once give a 
clue to the seven-fold nature of man. For each 
principle is correlated to a plane, a planet, and a 
race; and the human principles are, on every plane, 
correlated to sevenfold occult forces* — those of 
the highest planes being of tremendous power." 
"No one styling himself a 'scholar,' in whatever 
department of exact science, will be permitted to 



*Experimenter9 with the "Roentgen Ray" may 
profitably take notice. 



The Secret Doctrine. 123 

regard these teachings seriously. They will be 
derided and rejected, a priori, in this century; but 
only in this one. For in the 20th century of our era 
scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret 
Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, 
but, on the contrary, simply outlined; and finally, 
that its teachings antedate the Vedas." And in a 
footnote it .is said: "This is no pretension to 
prophesy, but simply a statement based on the 
knowledge of facts." 

In speaking of the source from which the present 
version of the Secret Doctrine is derived, our au- 
thor says, regarding an "old book" : "So very old 
that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its 
pages an indefinite time, and still not quite agree 
as to the nature of the fabric upon which it is writ- 
ten. . . . The most ancient Hebrew document 
of occult learning, the Siphrah Dzeniouta, was com- 
piled from it, and that at a time when the former 
was already considered in the light of a literary 
relic." 

"The days of Constantine were the last turning 
point in history. The period of the Supreme strug- 
gle that ended in the Western world throttling the 
old religions in favor of the new ones, built on their 
bodies. From thence the vista into the far distant 



124 Mystic Masonry. 

Past, beyond the 'Deluge' and the 'Garden of Eden,' 
began to be forcibly and relentlessly closed by every 
fair and unfair means against the indiscreet gaze 
of posterity. Every issue was blocked up, every 
record that hands could be laid upon, destroyed."* 

This same Constantine who, with his soldiers en- 
vironed the Bishops at the first Council of Nice, 
a. d. 325, and dictated terms to their deliberations, 
applied for initiation into the Mysteries, and was 
told by the officiating priest that no purgation could 
free him from the crime of putting his wife to death, 
or from his many perjuries and murders. Every 
careful and unbiased student of history knows why 
the Secret Doctrine has been heard of so little since 
the days of Constantine. An exoteric religion and 
belief in a personal God blotted it out for self-pro- 
tection ; and yet, oh, irony of history ! the very Pen- 
tateuch conceals it, and for many a student of 
Kabalah of the coming century the seals will be 
broken. 

In trying to apprehend an outline, at least, of the 
Secret Doctrine, two ideas should be kept con- 
stantly in mind, viz., Space and Consciousness; the 
former, in relation to all that is either thought or 



*Secret Doctrine. 



The Secret Doctrine. 125 

asserted regarding Nature and Deity; and the latter, 
in regard to Deity, Nature, and Man. In the last 
analysis, both Space and Consciousness elude us. 
What they are, per se, we shall never know. We 
may as well take them as facts in our experience, 
and in analyzing that experience, both Conscious- 
ness and Knowledge will expand. 

"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether 
there is a Universe or not: whether there be Gods 
or none? asks the Senzar Catechism. And the an- 
swer made is — Space." 

Now space is not Nature, nor is it Deity. Space 
may be said to contain nature or creation, and to 
conceal Divinity. It is therefore the point of ema- 
nation and the vanishing point. 

The Occult Catechism contains the following 
questions and answers: 

"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal 
Anupadaka" (parentless). "What is it that ever 
was?" "The germ in the Root." "What is it that 
is ever coming and going?" "The Great Breath." 
"Then there are three eternals?" "No, the three 
are one." "That which ever is, is one; that which 
ever was, is one; that which is ever being, and 
becoming, is also one: and this is Space." 

"For clearer understanding on the part of the 



126 Mystic Masonry. 

general reader, it must be stated that the Occult Sci- 
ence recognizes Seven Cosmical Elements — four 
entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi- 
material, as it will become visible in the air toward 
the end of the Fourth Round, to reign supreme over 
the others during the whole of the Fifth. The re- 
maining two are as yet absolutely beyond the range 
of human perception. These latter will, however, 
appear as presentiments during the 6th and 7th 
Rounds respectively. These seven elements, with 
their numberless Sub-Elements (far more numer- 
ous than those known to Science), are simply con- 
ditional modifications and aspects of the one and 
only Element. This latter is not Ether, nor even 
Akasa, but the Source of these. The Fifth Element, 
now advocated quite freely by Science, is not the 
Ether hypothesized by Sir Isaac Newton — although 
he calls it by that name, having associated it in his 
mind, probably, with the iEther, 'Father-Mother' oi 
Antiquity. As Newton intuitionally says : 'Nature 
is a perfect circulatory worker, generating fluids 
out of solids, fixed things out of volatile, and vola- 
tile out of fixed. Subtle out of gross, and gross out 
of subtle.' . . . Thus, perhaps, may all things be 
originated from Ether." (Hypoth. I, 675.)* 



* Secret Doctrine. 



The Secret Doctrine. 127 

It is interesting to notice, in this connection, that 
Newton was familiar with the writings of Jacob 
Boehmen, the "Teutonic Theosopher," and that 
among Newton's posthumous papers were found 
copious notes and translations from his works. As 
to the "Races," referred to in the above quotation, 
it need only be said in passing, that the Secret 
Doctrine declares that in the evolution of humanity 
there are to be seven Races, of which ours is now 
the fifth, and that each race makes seven rounds on 
our planetary chain, of which rounds the present 
race is now in the fourth, with here and there a 
"fifth rounder" appearing. The Secret Doctrine 
teaches, not only the immortality of the soul, but 
the perfectibility of humanity by orderly evolution 
on this Earth. This doctrine concerns the general 
evolution which the present work touches only inci- 
dentally; it is complicated, and necessarily so. 

There are three fundamental propositions that un- 
derlie the Secret Doctrine, (a) "An Omnipresent, 
Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on 
which all speculation is impossible, since it tran- 
scends the power of human conception, and could 
only be dwarfed by any human expression or simili- 
tude. It is beyond the range and reach of human 
thought — in the words of Mandukya, "unthinkable 



128 Mystic Masonry. 

and unspeakable." This Infinite and Eternal Cause 
— dimly formulated in the "Unconscious" and "Un- 
knowable" of current European philosophy — is the 
rootless root of "all that was, is, or ever shall be." 
. . . In Sanscrit it is "Sat." This "Beness" is 
symbolized in the Secret Doctrine under two 
aspects. 

On the one hand, Absolute abstract Space, repre- 
senting bare subjectivity, the one thing which no 
human mind can either exclude from any concep- 
tion or conceive of by itself. 

On the other, Absolute abstract Motion repre- 
senting "Unconditioned Consciousness." "Spirit 
(or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be 
regarded, not as independent realities, but as the 
two facets or aspects of the Absolute, which con- 
stitutes the basis of conditioned Being whether sub- 
jective or objective." "Considering this metaphys- 
ical triad" (the only reality, Spirit and Matter) "as 
the Root from which proceeds all manifestation, the 
'Great Breath' assumes the character of precosmic 
Ideation." (Plato's World of Divine Ideas.) 

"It is the fons et origo of force and of all individ- 
ual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelli- 
gence in the vast scheme of Cosmic Evolution. On 
the other hand, precosmic root-substance (Mulapra- 



The Secret Doctrine. 129 

kriti) is that aspect of the Absolute which underlies 
all the objective planes in Nature." 

(b) The second of the three postulates of the 
Secret Doctrine is : "The Eternity of the Universe 
in toto as a boundless plane: periodically 'the play- 
ground of numberless Universes incessantly mani- 
festing and disappearing/ called 'the manifesting 
stars' and the 'sparks of Eternity,' 'The Eternity 
of the Pilgrim' (the Monad or Self in man) is like 
a wink of the Eye of Self-Existence. 'The appear- 
ance and disappearance of Worlds is like a regular 
tidal ebb of flux and reflux.' " 

The third postulate is:— (c) 

"The fundamental identity of all Souls with the 
Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an as- 
pect of the* Unknown Root ; and the obligatory pil- 
grimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — 
through the Cycle of Incarnation (or Necessity) in 
accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the 
whole term." . . . "The pivotal doctrine of the 
Eastern philosophy admits no privileges or special 
gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through 
personal effort and merit throughout a long series 
of Metempsychosis and Reincarnations."* 



* Secret Doctrine, Introduction. 



130 Mystic Masonry. 

Every soul must "work out its own salvation," 
and "take the Kingdom of Heaven by force." Sal- 
vation by faith and the vicarious atonement were 
not taught, as now interpreted, by Jesus, nor are 
these doctrines taught in the exoteric Scriptures. 
They are later and ignorant perversions of the orig- 
inal doctrines. In the Early Church, as in the 
Secret Doctrine, there was not one Christ for the 
whole world, but a potential Christ in every man. 
Theologians first made a fetish of the Impersonal, 
Omnipresent Divinity; and then tore the Christos 
from the hearts of all humanity in order to deify 
Jesus; that they might have a God-man peculiarly 
their own ! 

All the ancient Mysteries had the true doctrine, 
and the early Christians had it. Masonry, uncon- 
taminated by the disciples of Loyola, had and has it 
also. 

The one Immutable Principle, referred to in the 
first proposition (a), is called in the Kabalah, Ain 
Soph: the word Ain meaning "nothing." This is 
not Jehovah, or Adonia, or the G,A,0,U; for it is 
not .itself creative, but the cause of Creation. 
("Causeless Cause.") 

The Jewish "creators" (plural) are the Elohim; 
the "Principalities and Powers." In this conception 



The Secret Doctrine. 131 

of Divinity lies the secret of the Ineffable Name, 
i. e., the Nameless. The Lost Word is to the Mas- 
ter who possesses it and knows how to "pronounce" 
it, what the Logos or creative power is to the 
Nameless. Hence the real Master creates, and in 
this sense is a god. This will be further shown in 
connection with the Seven Principles and the Na- 
ture of Man. 

The second proposition — the Eternity of the Uni- 
verse in toto — reveals the law of cycles and the "in- 
cessant" work of creation. 

In other words, the creative process never had a 
beginning, and will never have an end. There is 
one endless succession of Universes. Worlds and 
Solar systems continually appear and disappear. 

Each sun, star, or solar system has a period of 
activity and a period of repose; emanates from, and 
is drawn back into, the All and the One. These 
periods are called the "Nights and days of Brahm," 

The idea that a God with human qualities and 
human passions made the Earth out of nothing in 
six days of twenty-four hours each, is sufficiently 
miraculous, and sufficiently childish, for those who 
are ready to burn all who do not accept their inter- 
pretation. 

To endow a God with the power of performing 



132 Mystic Masonry. 

the impossible and the inconceivable, was considered 
sufficient honor bestowed. 

The law of periodicity is a necessary corollary of 
the order of events and the flight of time. Ryth- 
mical, orderly, harmonious movements in space give 
us our conception of time, as how fast, how often, 
how slow, how regular, etc. The ear is a time or- 
gan, and the basic property of the Ether is Sound. 
This idea of periodicity, or law of cycles, is sym- 
bolized in Freemasonry in many ways. 

In the three, five, or seven years of pilgrimage or 
penance ; in the seven years of plenty, and seven 
of famine. "In the low twelve" and "the high 
twelve," in calling the Craft from labor to refresh- 
ment, and many others. In the third postulate we 
have "the fundamental identity of all souls with the 
One," which gives the basis of the eternal and uni- 
versal Brotherhood of Man, and the basis of the en- 
tire scheme of human Evolution. 

When these doctrines are clearly understood, they 
will be seen to go far beyond any modern scheme 
of evolution, though running on somewhat similar 
lines. In them the entire scheme of Cosmic and 
human evolution will be found to have been worked 
out ages ago. Pythagoras and Plato found these 
doctrines completely unfolded in the Mysteries. 



The Secret Doctrine. 133 

Brother Pike says repeatedly that they have been far 
oftener disfigured than apprehended, and never 
transcended in modern times. Masonry derives its 
genius, its inspiration, its glyphs, and its traditions 
from this philosophy as taught in the Mysteries. 
How short-sighted and time-serving, then, must it 
be for Masonry to allow its Grand Traditions, its 
priceless inheritance to be dwarfed and overlaid by 
illogical interpretations, derived from records that 
were in the beginning, and before being disfigured* 
by ignorance or cupidity, only an allegory of the 
true doctrines, prepared by "those who knew" for 
the ignorant masses, who demanded a sign and 
could never rise above a fetish. This is like barter- 
ing a magnificent diamond for a lump of common 
clay. Shall Masons now complete the folly by try- 
ing to convince themselves and others that the clay 
is the only diamond? 

How much one's idea of God colors all his 
thoughts and deeds is seldom realized. The ordi- 
nary crude and ignorant conception of a personal 
God more often results in slavish fear on the one 
hand, and Atheism on the other. It is what Car- 
lyle calls "an absentee God, doing nothing since 
the six days of creation, but sitting on the outside 
and seeing it go !" This idea of God carries with 



134 Mystic Masonry. 

it, of course, the idea of creation, as something al- 
ready completed in time; when the fact is that cre- 
ation is a process without beginning or end. The 
world — all worlds — are being "created" today as 
much as at any period in the past. Even the ap- 
parent destruction of worlds is a creative, or evo- 
lutionary process. Emanating from the bosom of 
the All, and running their cyclic course; day alter- 
nating with night, on the outer physical plane, they 
are again indrawn to the invisible plane, only to re- 
emerge after a longer night and start again on a 
higher cycle of evolution. Theologians have tried 
in vain to attach the idea of immanence to that of 
personality, and ended in a jargon of words and 
utter confusion of ideas. A personal Absolute is 
not, except in potency. God does not think, but is 
the cause of Thought. God does not love, he is 
Love, in the perfect or absolute sense; and so with 
all the Divine Attributes. God is thus the concealed 
Logos, the "Causeless Cause," the "Rootless Root." 
God never manifests Himself (to be seen of men). 
Creation is His manifestation: and as creation is 
not complete, and never will be, and as it never had 
a beginning, there is a concealed or unrevealed po- 
tency back of and beyond all creation, which is still 
God. Now, Space is the most perfect symbol of 



The Secret Doctrine. 135 

this idea of Divinity; for it enters into all our con- 
cepts, and is the basis of all our experiences. We 
can not fathom it, or define it, or exclude it from a 
single thought or experience. Space is boundless, 
infinite, unfathomable, unknowable: in all, over all, 
through all. We know that It Is : and that is all 
we know about It. 

But are not these just the attributes that are as- 
signed to the Absolute and Infinite Deity? and they 
are all negations. God, says the Kabalah, is No 
Thing. But the Theologian will hasten to say that 
this is pure Pantheism. It is no more Pantheism 
than it is Atheism, for, as already shown, the Ain 
Soph is before and beyond Creation or Cosmos. It 
is not God deduced or derived from Nature, but pre- 
cisely the reverse; nature derived from God, and 
yet God remains "the same, yesterday, today, 
and forever" — the Changeless. The stability of 
nature is derived from the unchangeableness of God. 
God never tires, is not exhausted at His work, 
needing rest. That were so human as to be child- 
ish, and the idea, perhaps, originated from the cyclic 
law found in the Kabalah of the "Days and Nights 
of Brahm/' the "Manvantaras and Pralayas," or 
periods of "outbreaking" and of "inbreathing" in 
the cycles of evolution. 



136 Mystic Masonry. 

Hence the parable, given to the ignorant or the 
profane, of God's working and then resting. If the 
reader will but reflect a moment on his own proc- 
ess of breathing, he will find that the inbreathing 
(inhalation) and the outbreathing (exhalation) are 
equal, and equally active processes, although so dif- 
ferent, each being the opposite of the other: each, 
in its turn, the cause of the other. Stop one, and 
the other ceases also. The more one reflects on this 
symbol of the Great Breath which creation is, the 
more will he understand of both Eternal Nature and 
his own being. 

But it may be asked: is man to be deprived of all 
idea of Personality except his own? By no means. 
God is the Author of Being, is the Author of Per- 
sonality. He personifies Himself, i. e., expresses 
that potency of Himself which personality is, 
through Man. The Hand of Providence is always 
a human hand. Humanity is both the vehicle and 
the agent of what man has called the Providence of 
God. 

Humanity in toto, then, is the only Personal God ; 
and Christos is the realization, or perfection of this 
Divine Persona, in Individual conscious experience. 
When this perfection is realized, the state is called 
Christos, with the Greeks, and Buddha, with the 



The Secret -Doctrine. i2>7 

Hindoos. Hence the Christ is at-one with the 
Father. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in 
Heaven is perfect." 

Humanity in toto ! What is it? Is it the genera- 
tions of the present age? or of any age in the past? 
or of the future? and these alone? Justice rules 
the Universe, and is the foundation of all Law. Jus- 
tice is the "Kingdom," the "Permanency" of Deity. 
Humanity, therefore, means every human being ever 
born, in any age, or to be born in coming ages, on 
this Planet. All are "in the Hollow of His hand." 
One God, One Law for all ! else there is no Justice. 

And if :t shall be done unto each according to the 
deeds done in the body; if as a man soweth so shall 
he reap, the only logical deduction is Law governing 
action and determining results according to Abso- 
lute Justice. And this the Kabalah, the Secret Doc- 
trine and Masonry, and all Sacred Books, and all 
Religions, everywhere teach. By taking the Sym- 
bols for the thing symbolized, men have made con- 
tradictions out of details, and then built up a system 
of final rewards and punishments, attaching to acts 
in time; and claimed their unreason and injustice as 
binding to all eternity. The result "is Atheism and 
Materialism ; for there is an instinct in man, as part 
of his Divine inheritance, and that instinct is an 



138 Mystic Masonry. 

innate sense of Justice. Destroy this, and the 
result is Atheism, pure and simple. Destruction of 
the sense of Justice has honey-combed the churches, 
and been the parent of modern Materialism. It is 
true that Materialism is not the logical, but the 
actual result. The issue is not logically between an 
Uujust God and no God, but between a God that is 
inconceivable because Unjust; and a God that is 
conceivable because Just, and therefore the issue of 
the Supreme Reason. 

But this philosophical concept of Divinity has 
another and still wider bearing. It concerns not 
only man's personal life, but determines his relations 
to his fellow men. It is the basis of ethics, and 
furthermore co-ordinates all his experience and all 
his knowledge, and this leads to true wisdom. "To 
know God is the Supreme Wisdom." 

It will be urged by modern Theologians that this 
view dethrones Christ. To this objection the an- 
swer is that any other view orphans Humanity. It 
is far more important that men should strive to 
become Christs than that they should believe that 
Jesus was Christ. If the Christ-state can be at- 
tained by but one human being during the whole 
evolution of the race, then the evolution of man is 
a farce and human perfection an impossibility. 



The Secret Doctrine. 139 

Jesus is no less Divine because all men may 
reach the same Divine perfection. Again, it will be 
urged, "There is no other name given under Heaven 
or amongst men whereby ye can be saved." But 
this is the Ineffable Name, which every Master is 
to possess and become, and salvation and perfection 
are synonymous. It has also been shown that every 
act in the drama of the life of Jesus, and every 
quality assigned to Christ, is to be found in the life 
of Krishna and in the legend of all the Sun-Gods 
from the remotest antiquity. 

That which the orthodox Christian will find to 
oppose to this view is not that it dethrones or de- 
grades Christ, but that it disproves the idea of 
Christ as their exclusive possession, and denies that 
all other religions are less Divine than their own. 
We have brought the same selfishness into our 
religions that we indulge in regard to our other pos- 
sessions, such as wife and children, and houses and 
land, and country; and the same partisan spirit as 
in our politics, and this more than anything else 
appears to justify selfishness in general, militates 
against the Brotherhood of Man, and prevents the 
founding of the "Great Republic, composed of 
many Nations and all people." This idea of Uni- 
versal Brotherhood which was a cardinal doctrine 



140 Mystic Masonry. 

in the Ancient Mysteries — as it is involved in the 
first postulate of the Secret Doctrine, and openly- 
declared in the third; and which is equally given 
the very first rank in Masonry — is the logical de- 
duction from our idea of Divinity, and of the essen- 
tial nature and meaning of Christos. Humanity, 
in toto, as already explained, is the personification 
of the Divine in Creation, and the idea of exact and 
universal Justice regards each individual of all the 
myriads constituting Humanity with equal favor. 
There are no favorites in the Divine Conception, 
Justice of God toward all implies Justice toward 
each other amongst men. This principle of Justice 
is Law Universal, and this principle of Brotherhood 
and the perfectibility of man's nature through evo- 
lution necessitate Reincarnation. The number of 
souls constituting Humanity, though practically in- 
numerable, is, nevertheless definite. Hence the doc- 
trine of pre-existence taught in all the Mysteries 
applies to "every child of woman born;" all con- 
ditions in each life being determined by previous 
living. This will be further elaborated in another 
section of this work. Thus the Fatherhood of God 
in the Personification of Divinity in Humanity in- 
cludes the Universal and Unqualified Brotherhood 
of Man. 



The Secret Doctrine. 141 

The real Masters in all ages, knowing this from 
the lessons taught in the mysteries of initiation, have 
ever been the foes of Autocrats, Oligarchies, and 
Oppression in every form, whether Ecclesiastical 
or Political. Masons are taught to obey the laws 
of the country in which they reside. They are not 
agents of Revolution, but of Evolution. By enlight- 
enment and persuasion they may strive to reform 
a nation or a church. The true Republic is the out- 
growth of Brotherhood, and a jealous monarch in 
Church or State will naturally oppose the diffusion 
of doctrines that tend to the liberation and the en- 
lightenment of the people. 

It is true, however, that all the Masters or Adepts 
may not be equally enlightened or equally prudent. 

Mystics like Jacob Boehmen, or Adepts like St. 
Germain, or Masons like de Molai, or Philosophers 
like Bruno, or other Agents of the Great Lodge 
sought only to instruct and enlighten mankind. 

The rabble were deaf to their doctrines and ap- 
peals, and turned like ravenous wolves upon them. 

"Because true Masonry unemasculated, bore the 
banners of Freedom and Equal Right, and was in 
rebellion against spiritual tyranny, its Lodges were 
proscribed in 1738 by an edict of the States of Hol- 
land. In 1737 Louis XV. forbade them in France. 



142 Mystic Masonry. 

In 1738 Pope Clement XII. issued against them his 
famous Bull of Excommunication, which was re- 
newed by Benedict XIV.; and in 1743 the Council 
of Berne also proscribed them."* 

"Masonry has ever the most vivid remembrance 
of the terrible and artificial torments that were used 
to put down new forms of religion, or extinguish the 
old. It sees with the eye of memory the ruthless 
extermination of all the people of all ages and both 
sexes because it was their misfortune not to know 
the God of the Hebrews, or to worship Him under 
the wrong name by the savage troops of Moses and 
Joshua. It sees the thumb-screws and the racks, 
the whip, the gallows, and the stake, the victims of 
Diocletian and Alva, the miserable Covenanters, the 
Non-Conformists, Servetus burned, and the unof- 
fending Quaker hung. It sees the persecutions of 
Peter and Paul, the martyrdom of Stephen, the trials 
of Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin and Ireneus; and then, 
in turn, the sufferings of wretched Pagans under the 
Christian Emperors, as of Papists in Ireland under 
Elizabeth, and the bloated Henry; the Roman 
Virgin naked before the hungry lions, young Mar- 
garet Graham tied to a stake at low-water mark, 



*Monals and Dogma, p. 50. 



The Secret Doctrine. 143 

and there left to drown, singing hymns to God until 
the savage waters broke over her head ; and all that 
in all ages have suffered by hunger and nakedness, 
peril and prison, the rack, the stake, the sword — it 
sees them all, and shudders at the long roll of hu- 
man atrocities. And it sees the oppression still prac- 
ticed in the name of religion — men shot in a Chris- 
tian Jail in Christian Italy for reading the Christian 
Bible; in almost every Christian State laws forbid- 
ding freedom of speech on matters relating to 
Christianity, and the gallows reaching its arm over 
the pulpit." 

"The fires of Moloch in Syria, the harsh mutila- 
tions in the name of Astarte, Cybele, and Jehovah; 
the barbarities of imperial Pagan Torturers ; the still 
grosser torments which Roman Gothic Christians in 
Italy and Spain heaped on their brother-men; the 
fiendish cruelties to which Switzerland and France, 
the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland, Amer- 
ica, have been witness, are' none too powerful to 
warn man of the unspeakable evils which follow 
from mistakes and errors in the matter of religion, 
and especially from investing the God of Love with 
the cruel and vindictive passions of erring humanity, 
and making blood to have a sweet savor in his nos- 



144 Mystic Masonry. 

trils, and groans of agony to be delicious in his 
ears." 

"Man never had the right to usurp the unexer- 
cised prerogative of God, and condemn and punish 
another for his belief."* 

All men are brothers by all the laws of Nature 
and by the very Being of God. But so long as 
Religion defines Heresy as a crime, or imagines a 
God with human attributes, "man's inhumanity to 
man" will continue to make "countless millions 
mourn," and find vent for all evil passions justified 
by their idea of God. But, some will say this is all 
a thing of the past. Mankind, especially in Chris- 
tian countries, have outgrown these relics of Bar- 
barism. Alas ! if it were only true. We do not 
drown, or burn, or torture physically, but quite as 
subtle torture to the sensitive is found in scorn, 
contempt, ridicule, and ostracism, in slander and 
defamation of character. Are we any nearer genu- 
ine brotherhood today than we were a century ago? 
or have, we but refined our cruelties and merely dis- 
guised the claw of the tiger? Do not supreme 
selfishness and relentless greed lie at the heart of 
competition? Are not the Trade Unions and the 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 162 et seq. 



The Secret Doctrine. 145 

Syndicates glowering at each other like cages of 
wild beasts? Ah, my Brother, we are but little re- 
moved from Barbarism after all, and it does make 
all the difference in the world what idea we enter- 
tain of God, and what is our basis of Ethics. The 
one idea of the modern Scheme of Salvation is self- 
preservation. We must be saved, if all the rest are 
damned, and competition, and egotism, and selfish- 
ness in every form are the legitimate result. 

Masonry does not preach a new religion, it but 
reiterates the New Commandment announced by 
Jesus, which was also announced by every great re- 
former of religion since history began. Drop the 
theological barnacles from the Religion of Jesus, as 
taught by Him, and by the Essgnes and Gnostics of 
the first centuries, and it becomes Masonry. Ma- 
sonry in its purity, derived as it is from the old 
Hebrew Kabalah as part of the Great Universal 
Wisdom-Religion of remotest Antiquity, stands 
squarely for the Unqualified and Universal Brother- 
hood of Man, in all time and in every age. To 
Christianize Masonry, or to narrow it to the secta- 
rian bounds of any Creed, is not only to dwarf and 
belittle it, but must inevitably result, as among war- 
ring sects, has always resulted with religions, in 
setting brother against brother, and Lodge against 



146 Mystic Masonry. 

Lodge, and result in final dissolution. This is one 
of the plainest meanings of the Legend of the Lost 
Word. 

The thinnest veil over the sublime Mystery of the 
Ineffable Name is Brotherhood and Love ! This is 
the Light of the Logos. 

The gross darkness that hangs like a black veil 
over the Shekinah is Selfishness and Hate. Even 
so hath it ever been; and so will it ever be till 
Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth reign universally 
in the hearts of all Humanity. The refinements of 
so-called Civilization do not change the essential 
nature of man. Beneath all these there sleeps or 
wakes a demon or an angel, and one of these is ever 
in chains, for no man can serve two masters. 



The Secret Doctrine. 147 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SECRET DOCTRINE (CONTINUED). 

Science and Religion. 

The Science and the Religion (Theology) of the 
West are in perpetual conflict. The genius of this 
religion discerns Faith and Miracle as its founda- 
tion. Science holds as its ideals Fact and Law. 
This religion is necessarily illogical, while science 
is materialistic, and, thanks to both, mankind is as 
far from any real knowledge of the nature and des- 
tiny of the soul as it was a thousand years ago. 
This conflict has long been maintained; it is a war 
to the death ; both religion and science are being re- 
formed, and long before the battle ceases, neither 
of the original champions will be found to exist, ex- 
cept in their progeny of doubtful extraction or for- 
eign parentage. 

A reconciliation has sometimes been dreamed of, 
but placed a long way off. The theory or "working 
hypothesis" of Science is mechanical to the last de- 
gree. Matter, Force, Motion, and Law without an 



148 Mystic Masonry. 

underlying Intelligence. Matter is said to be essen- 
tially dead and inert, and Mind is regarded as the 
fortuitous result of combination and aggregation, 
known as "organization." Evolution is regarded 
as the result of modification and improvement by 
use and selection, and the increment carried forward 
by heredity. In other words, of Autonomy. 

The theory of Religion is that of a Personal God 
and an arbitrary and equally mechanical, though 
miraculous, creation; of a Revelation equally mi- 
raculous; of souls created as by arbitrary caprice of 
Deity, with the accidental co-operation of man, even 
in violation of Divine Law. It talks of Laws, but 
admits their abrogation through the Will (caprice) 
of God. It is true that neither Science nor Religion 
has openly formulated the foregoing creeds, but 
they are fair deductions from the postulates as- 
sumed, the logical results of a Nature without In- 
telligence; and a God who creates Laws only to 
annul them at His own good pleasure ! Reconcilia- 
tion between Science and Religion thus becomes 
impossible, because each is a contradiction to itself. 

But a reconciliation was reached in the Secret 
Doctrine ages ago. 

The old universal Wisdom Religion was scientific 
to the last degree ; for beneath both Science and Re- 



The Secret Doctrine. 149 

ligion was the Philosophy which discerned the or- 
derly processes of Eternal Nature, with no "missing 
links" in Evolution, and no caprice or contradictions 
anywhere in Cosmos. 

The First Postulate of the Secret Doctrine, 
already referred to, lays the sure foundation of this 
old Philosophy. 

An Omnipotent, Eternal, Boundless, and Im- 
mutable Principle, co-evil and co-extensive with 
Space: in All, through All, and over All: Divinity 
Immanent in Nature: Alike the Eternal Cause and 
Result, each without beginning or end, and each 
alternating forever ! 

Law in Nature is the Permanency, the Unchange- 
ableness of the Divine Being. Intelligence in Na- 
ture is the Harmony of the Divine Order. Hence, 
the "Kingdom," the "Foundation," the "Crown," the 
"Beauty," etc., of the Kabalistic Sephira, or Divine 
Attributes of Ain Soph, the Boundless. The doc- 
trine of Emanation, taught by Plato and held by the 
Gnostics and the early Christians, gave the key to 
cosmic and human evolution. Plotinus said: "God 
is not the principle of Beings, but the Principle of 
Principles." Universal Substance, Universal En- 
ergy* Universal Law, Universal Life, Universal In- 



150 Mystic Masonry. 

telligence are all emanations or manifestations of 
the One Principle. 

This is not Pantheism, but pure and unadulterated 
Theism. 

The All is One, and that One is Divinity. Spinoza 
came, perhaps, as near the truth as any one since 
the days of the old Initiates. 

Every atom of matter as every "spot" in space is 
full of Divinity. 

There is neither time nor place where He ("It") 
is not. The Priest-Initiates among the Hebrews 
knew this doctrine, as they had it from Old Egypt 
("Moses was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyp- 
tians"), and neither Jehovah nor Adonai was the 
Nameless or the Boundless. 

Here, in the First Postulate, lies the complete 
reconciliation of Science and Religion. Through 
the Divine Immanence in Nature, and within all, 
Space concealed, every atom of matter is endowed 
with Life and Intelligence and bound by Law. Evo- 
lution is a Formation, Transformation, and Re-for- 
mation, in endless succession, with the outposts of 
Creation continually drawn upward toward the 
center in Divinity. Or, Space Involves Divinity, 
and Evolves Cosmos. At the center of every atom 
or Sun lies Divinity (Unity) ; at the circumference 



The Secret Doctrine. 151 

unfolds Nature (Diversity) ; and these two are for- 
ever One and at-one. 

How any rational mind can fail to see in this 
philosophy a complete Reconciliation of Religion 
and Science, it is difficult to understand. 

In the beginning, when the world emanates, or 
begins to manifest visibly, space becomes turgid 
(called "curds" in the old Hindoo Cosmology) 
with substance. The invisible becomes visible. 
This is the first "Matter," and it is called Akasa. 
On the force side, coincident with this turgescence 
(prior to "nebula") "Absolute Abstract Motion, 
representing Unconditioned Consciousness," one of 
the two aspects of Beness — latent potential energy 
becomes active. Latent Consciousness becomes 
Cosmic Ideation. This primal energy is called 
Fohat, "the mysterious link between Mind and 
Matter, the animating principle electrifying every 
atom into life." We have now Matter, Force and 
Motion, with Law as the Guiding intelligence 
(active) and Consciousness (latent) as Cosmic 
Ideation, unfolding the Plan ; and all these in perfect 
concord evolving the Symphony of Creation. Of 
course this Cosmogenesis can be here but roughly 
outlined. 

We have then Akasa, as the Universal Substance, 



152 Mystic Masonry. 

and Fohat, as the Universal Energy, with Intelli- 
gence guiding them, Consciousness back of them, 
and the Roots of all in the Concealed Ain-Soph, the 
Unknowable. Professor Crooks has taken a long 
stride in this direction in his metaphysical excur- 
sion in search of the "Origin of the Elements," and 
in his postulation of Protyle. He has further 
touched the septenary key in the order of the ema- 
nation of the so-called elements known to modern 
science. It would be impossible in a work such as 
this, and equally out of place, to undertake to trace 
the process running through millions of years by 
which a planet is evolved ; how the turgescence gives 
rise to denser substance, "set on fire" by friction 
(Fohat), and how the "Fire-Mist" cools and 
hardens into Matter on our plane. Though appar- 
ent Chaos, here is Cosmos, order and formation, as 
much as now may be discerned in this present 
state of our Earth. The real Chaos is Space, which 
is but latent, potential Cosmos, or Creation asleep. 
Tracing this process of world-building from the 
"beginning," the One (negative), abstract Space 
and absolute Abstract Motion (the Ineffable Name, 
or Deity, lying still back of these, "Nameless" and 
never manifesting), now become active, and here 
lies the first "Manifestation," a duality: "Father- 



The Secret Doctrine. 153 

Mother;" Spirit and Matter; Consciousness and In- 
telligence. From a latent or potential duality, space 
and motion, there arises an active manifested dual- 
ity. Taking latency as the One, the First Logos, 
we have thus the first Triad, or the "Second Logos." 
As differentiation goes on the first Triad becomes 
the Modulus. Fohat "lights the fires," sets the 
"wheels" (atoms) in motion, and Cosmic Ideation 
(latent Consciousness becoming active) now gives 
form to evolving substance. Symbolize this and we 
have the first triad reflecting itself in matter a 
double triangle,* or a perfect square, with the In- 
effable Name inscribed in the first triangle;" which 
with the three reflected, making six, and the Name 
added making the First Septenary. This is the key- 
note of all that follows; the pitch, the rhythm, and 
the harmony of Creation: The first octave in the 
song of the Morning Stars. The first septenary in 
the Universal Spectrum of Color: and the first ex- 
pression of the form into which Matter is molded. 



*In the Kabalah the "Ancient of Days;" the 
"Aged of the Aged;" "The Face reflected in the 
Waters." Akasa is also called "the pure waters of 
space." 

t See Plate I. 



154 Mystic Masonry. 

To synthesize all these movements in one word we 
have Fohat as the agent; and Vibration as the man- 
ifestation. The Master who knows the pitch, qual- 
ity and amplitude of this first vibration, who can 
produce this first septenary of sound, color, and 
form, can by so doing raise his Consciousness to 
that first or seventh (according as -we count from 
above downward or the reverse) plane. Such a one 
knows how to pronounce the Ineffable Name. It is 
not only a matter of pure science, dealing with laws 
of rhythm; a fact, and not a tradition or a senti- 
ment, but it implies absolute At-One-Ment in knowl- 
edge and power between all that goes to make up 
what we call man and all that we call Nature. It 
is the consummation of human evolution. Hence 
said the Christ: "It is finished." In giving himself 
to the world the perfect at-one-ment was attained. 
In the ethical sense, that is, on the plane of rela- 
tions of man to man, the Word is Renunciation, or 
self-sacrifice. In the Hindoo tradition regarding 
the Master's Word there are seven ways of pro- 
nouncing it, each involving a different potency and 
a different result. The Voice of the Silence says : 
"Before thou set'st thy foot upon the ladder's up- 
per rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast 



The Secret Doctrine. 155 

to hear the voice of thy inner God (the Higher 
Self) in seven manners. 

"The first is like the nightingale's sweet voice 
chanting a song of parting to its mate. 

"The second comes as the sound of a silver cym- 
bal of the Dhyanis, awakening the twinkling stars. 

"The next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean 
sprite imprisoned in a shell. 

"And this is followed by the chant of Vina. 

"The fifth like the sound of bamboo-flute shrills 
in thine ear. 

"It changes next to a trumpet blast. 

"The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a 
thunder-cloud. 

"The seventh swallows all the other sounds. 
They die, and then are heard no more. 

"When the six are slain and at the Master's feet 
are laid, then is the pupil merged into the one, be- 
comes the one and lives therein." 

While these descriptions are of symbols of sounds, 
they nevertheless represent definite vibrations in the 
Ether or Akasa, and he who can induce them in 
himself, can raise his consciousness plane after plane 
to the seventh, and become at-one with the All. If 
one has ever fainted or taken an anaesthetic, and re- 
members the rushing sound that precedes the silence, 



156 Mystic Masonry. 

when consciousness ceases on the outer plane, he 
has a fact in his own experience giving him the key 
to Samadhi. If he can produce the same condition 
in himself without fainting or chloroform, for ex- 
ample, but by a knowledge of the laws of vibration, 
then is he an Adept, and has, and knows how to 
pronounce the Master's Word. 

The ''designs on the Trestle-board for the build- 
ing of the Temple" are the laws that determine the 
evolution of the Higher Self in Man : while the exe- 
cution of the plan, or the construction of the temple, 
in accordance with the plan, means a transformation 
of the earthly tabernacle — the lower nature — into a 
likeness with "that other, spiritual temple, not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

This is again symbolized by the triangle within 
the square. 

The triangle in the square symbolizes potential 
Being before evolution: Man in the Garden of 
Eden. The square in the triangle symbolizes regen- 
eration; the purification of the lower earthly nature 
so that it may "ascend to the Father;" return to 
Paradise. This is symbolized by the careful posi- 
tion of the compass and square in relation to the 
Holy Bible, while the three Greater lights, and 
three Lesser lights again make a double triangle; 



The Secret Doctrine. 157 

one greater because above, one lesser because 
below, which every Mason will understand. 

A few years ago these explanations would have 
seemed to the great majority of persons purely 
fanciful. But since the recent progress in electric- 
ity and photography; since thought and emotion, 
like light and shade, have been photographed by 
light emanating from the human body directed by 
the human Will, the philosophical synthesis of the 
forces in man is the next step in the search of 
science for the mystery of man. 

It is precisely this synthesis which Masonry pos- 
sesses in its Symbolism, and we can only read the 
one by the light of the other, and check both by 
facts derived by experiments as science advances. 

Passing now from these broader metaphysical as- 
pects to the complex nature of man, and we have 
also the key to his entire nature and evolution. 

We begin with the fact of consciousness. Man is 
not merely a bundle of organs or faculties : he is es- 
sentially one. What else can be the meaning of the 
phrase "Made in the image of God" ? 

Man is the image, God the reality. Divinity 
posits a center of consciousness and this evolves 
into man. Just as in Cosmogenesis, latent con- 
sciousness as abstract absolute motion, became with 



158 Mystic Masonry. 

abstract space the Cosmic duality. We speak of 
this center of consciousness in man as a "spark of 
Divinity." What Divinity is to Cosmos this spark 
is to man. Concealed, never manifesting itself, but 
giving rise to all manifestations in man, it is the 
apex of the triangle, while Life and Thought are the 
other two angles. 

Starting, then, with this metaphysical concept, we 
have the Divine Ego, the Higher Self; a metaphys- 
ical abstraction, it is .true, like the zero in mathe- 
matics, or like Motion and Space, yet the cause 
lying back of all phenomena, the potency of all 
actuality. 

This is the Ego, the Thinker, the "I am I" in 
man. So far, it is not conscious, but consciousness; 
or the cause of it in man's complex nature. It is 
the "All-seeing Eye." It is Christos, potentially. 
It is Conscience; the "Sun of Righteousness," in 
man's world of being. It attaches to the body and 
the lower life through mind, of which it is the po- 
tency, but not the act; the Thinker, but not the 
Thought. 

Mind is the immediate vehicle of consciousness, 
as matter is called the vehicle of Force. 

Thus, from the three postulates of the Secret 



The Secret Doctrine. 159 

Doctrine we have, first: Divinity, and Nature at 
one; second, we have Spirit and Substance as the 
dual principle from which all Force and all Matter 
proceed; third, Religion and Science, are consistent, 
each with itself, and in perfect harmony with each 
other; fourth, we have a philosophy of the origin, 
nature, and destiny of Man, agreeing with, and 
fortified by all previous concepts. The First Postu- 
late teaches the origin and essential nature of all 
things. The Second Postulate teaches the Law of 
Cycles, and the process of world-building. The 
Third Postulate teaches, in harmony with the First 
and Second, the "fundamental identity" of all souls 
with the Universal Over-Soul ; Brotherhood and the 
Laws of Karma and Reincarnation, which are the 
factors in Human Evolution. 

Going back, now, to the First Postulate, we find 
One Principle with whatever "aspects" or "man- 
ifestations" the human mind may conceive, and 
all things, all principles, potencies, powers, derived' 
from or manifestations of this One: whether it be 
Matter or Spirit; man or beast; angel or worm; 
every thing from the One; and, after all manifesta- 
tion, as before, the One is concealed; inexhaustible, 
unknowable. We know and can know only Its gar- 
ment, Its manifestations. 



160 Mystic Masonry. 

Man is called the Microcosm, or little world. The 
One is in him, as in Nature, the cause of his Being; 
and as in the Macrocosm, or great world, the One 
manifests as the many by an orderly descent or dif- 
ferentiation, so in man, from the one principle we 
have first a triad, and then a quaternary. The three 
evolve four, making seven. Then from the first 
seven, "seven times seven," making the "49 fires"* 
of the older Hindu philosophy. Before the reader 
declares this conception to be altogether fanciful, 
let him turn to the investigations of modern physical 
science regarding Color and Sound. Helmholtz es- 
timated that between the highest rate of vibrations 
giving rise to sound waves apprehensible to the hu- 
man ear, and the lowest vibration of Light, giving 
rise to the red of the Solar Spectrum, there would 
intervene about thirty-four octaves of consonant or 
dissonant vibrations ; and unless there are great gaps 
in nature, these thirty-four octaves are concerned in 
producing the phenomena of Nature. It has, fur- 
thermore, been demonstrated that there is an exact 
equation between color and sound vibrations; and 
that colors have their complementary tones, and 



*See Plates I and II. 



The Secret Doctrine. 161 

tones their complementary colors. In other words, 
we may see sounds and hear colors. 

The modern theory (very old) of the Correlation 
and Conservation of Force, designates the various 
forces, as "Special Modes of Motion:" that is, defi- 
nite vibrations. All colors, sounds, and forms in 
nature, are the result of definite vibrations. Matter 
exists on different planes, having different densities, 
different atomic or molecular structure, and hence 
different vibrations. Change the plane, or rather 
transfer matter from one plane to another, and you 
change the inherent or normal vibration. Reverse 
the process, and change by any means the vibration, 
and you transfer the matter involved to another 
plane. We must go further. Observation and ex- 
periment have shown that as to these various planes 
we have not a single form of matter, with a single 
form of vibration, but every plane is complex and 
compound. All the colors of the spectrum, and all 
the tones in a musical scale, are resolvable into con- 
sonant series of octaves (septenaries). Hence on 
all the planes above referred to, there is an inter- 
penetration of planes and vibrations. 

On each plane there is a dominant chord to which 
all vibrations conform. Just as we may have in an 
octave or throughout a symphony a dominant chord. 



162 Mystic Masonry. 

The order of this interpenetration, however, is from 
above downward. The higher penetrate the lower, 
while the lower are only latent in the higher. Take, 
for example, seven planes of which the highest (sev- 
enth) represents spirit, and the lowest matter or 
physical substance. The first or lowest plane is 
altogether illusory. It has no permanent or real 
existence. It is not only in continual motion and 
continual change (Formation, Dissolution, and Re- 
formation) but these are its characteristics. Under 
certain conditions it disappears (dissolves) from the 
ist plane entirely, and passes to the 2d, and to the 
3d, 4th, and so on. The greatest activity is on 
the higher planes, and is greatest on the highest; 
till all merge in, or return to, the One, and Change- 
less, from which they emanated. All known phe- 
nomena in nature testify to the existence of such a 
law. Hence the saying in the old philosophy: 
"Nature prefers that matter shall be eternal on the 
higher planes only." 

The grossest physical substance, therefore, is 
penetrated or saturated with all the higher sub- 
stances and energies. These are held to sub- 
ordinate positions by the dominant chord, which is, 
say, "F," and so are latent or active as the theme 
unfolds, or as the combination varies. Can any one 



The Secret Doctrine. 163 

imagine such a complicated condition and such co- 
ordinate results as all the time occur, and yet be- 
lieve that there is no absolute law governing the 
whole process? It is not difficult in a general way 
to formulate the law. 

Take the first or lowest plane. It is penetrated 
by matter of plane No. 2, the next higher. Let us 
say that each plane represents matter and force, the 
Cosmic duality. The so-called Force, of plane 1, 
is the so-called substance of plane 2. But plane 2 
is in its turn saturated by the substance and energy 
of plane 3. Hence the force or energy of plane 2 
is the substance of plane 3, while the Force side of 
plane 3 is latent on plane 2, but active on plane 3. 
The law, therefore, may be thus formulated: From 
highest to lowest, the lower is the vehicle (Upadhi) 
of the higher; and each plane in the ascending or- 
der derives its Force or Energy from the Substance 
of the next higher. In the last analysis, where all 
are merged in the one, Substance and Energy are 
seen to be but two aspects of the One Eternal Prin- 
ciple; the "Father-Mother" of the old philosophy. 

Passing now from these general considerations to 
the organic nature of man, and applying these uni- 
versal laws to his physical, sensuous, intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual nature, we shall, find that they 



164 Mystic Masonry. 

shed a flood of light on the problem of his nature, 
origin and destiny. 

It is well to bear in mind that our idea of God, 
and our theory of Religion (theology) were the 
starting points in this philosophy. To deny the ex- 
istence of God, or to conceive one as illogical, un- 
just, capricious, personal, and endowed with all hu- 
man infirmities, equally lead to confusion, ignorance 
and discouragement, if not to despair. 

This philosophy, here but crudely outlined, is 
not only the foundation of all the sacred books of 
all religions, but, while it was in them concealed 
beneath parable and allegory, in the Mysteries of 
each religion it was taught openly, and constituted 
the theoretical part of the genuine Initiations. Be- 
fore undertaking to show how far this philosophy is 
embodied in the symbols of Masonry, in the Build- 
ing of the Temple, and the Legend of Hiram, it 
will be necessary to further unfold the teaching in 
regard to the complex nature of man. 

Man may be viewed from two standpoints: as a 
concrete whole (an Individual, a conscious unit), 
and as an aggregate of organs and faculties. An- 
atomically, man is composed of fluids, tissues, and 
organs. The fluids are resolvable into inorganic 
and organic compounds, and resolvable again into 



The Secret Doctrine. 165 

elements. The tissues and organs originate from 
cells, these from molecules, and these again are 
supposed to be composed of atoms or so-called 
elements. Physiology classifies the functions of 
man as organic — mere association of tissues en- 
dowed with life like the plant, hence sometimes 
called vegetative functions: as Animal — viewed 
from the sensuous plane, and common to all animal 
life: as Intellectual, in which are generally included 
the Moral and the Spiritual. Consciousness is usu- 
ally regarded as incidental, according as it appears 
or disappears on the physical plane. It has already 
been shown that in the Secret Doctrine, Conscious- 
ness is regarded as the permanent or basic factor in 
Man's Being. It is never destroyed, never sus- 
pended, but may retire from one plane to another. 
In this sense it may be withdrawn from the phys- 
ical plane. This old theory of the Ego, or Thinker, 
and its planes of consciousness on any of which it 
may be latent or active during its connection with 
the body, makes it possible or thinkable that the Ego 
may, in its states of consciousness, transcend the 
limits of the physical body altogether, and furnishes 
a conception of the nature and existence of the hu- 
man Soul. These elements of truth, be it observed, 
are derived from the phenomena and experiences of 



166 Mystic Masonry. 

the T^go in the physical body, and the key to the 
problem lies in the planes of Consciousness. It is 
because modern materialistic science has overlooked 
the importance, and failed to understand the philos- 
ophy of Consciousness, that it denies or is agnostic 
regarding the existence of the soul. It should also 
be observed, that we do not put forth a theory of 
Consciousness as a working hypothesis, but start 
with Consciousness as an empirical fact in all hu- 
man experience. Regarding the nature of con- 
sciousness itself, we are agnostic enough to suit the 
Spencers and Huxleys of Science, for we have 
posited it as the highest point in the nature of man ; 
a "spark" from the Unknowable; the "forever Con- 
cealed." 

As to changes in states and extension of the 
bounds of consciousness, this has already been 
proved empirically in the experiments in hypnotism. 
Beyond the field of touch, outside the range of sight 
or sound, as applied to the ordinary functions of the 
senses, Hypnotic Subjects have been influenced by 
the silent will, and become conscious of the unex- 
pressed thought of the Hypnotizer. Thus, even 
modern materialism with its mechanical working 
hypothesis has worked up to the problem of con- 
sciousness. 



The Secret Doctrine. 167 

Had anything been wanting in -this direction, the 
clues, at least, have been furnished by the experi- 
ments in Psychic photography of Dr. Baraduc, re- 
ported in the French Academy of Medicine, and 
many other experimenters are working on the same 
lines. If the reports are true, Dr. Baraduc has 
proved by photography the existence of the Mayavi- 
Rupa, the thought-body known to many Adepts of 
antiquity. Long before this, Mr. J. M. Rusk, of 
McConnelsville, Ohio, photographed a "thought 
form" by the light resulting from a strong concen- 
tration of the Will. Instances might be multiplied, 
but enough evidence has already been adduced to 
give the death-blow to Mechanico-materialistic hy- 
potheses of modern science, and to open the door 
for the Psychic Science of the East. 

Now, the Anatomy and Physiology to which I 
have referred, offer a certain method of investigat- 
ing man, and while this method has given rise to 
magnificent results, it is not, by any means, the only 
one, nor the most fruitful for all purposes. 

The Planes in Nature and in Man, to which I have 
referred, and the septenary principle in their divis- 
ions and relations, offer another method of investi- 
gation. 



1 68 Mystic Masonry. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SECRET DOCTRINE (CONTINUED). 

The Septenary Nature of Man. 

We may speak of Life, of Will, of Desire, and of 
Love as Principles manifesting in Nature and recog- 
nized by results. In themselves they may have no 
definite form, yet are they none the less potent. 
These principles may take the form of the body of 
man, as water takes the form of the vessel that con- 
tains it, which, if congealed, retains the form of the 
vessel. Still it is true that water as a body has no 
definite form of its own. So it is with the prin- 
ciples we are considering. They are metaphysical 
concepts, not tangible things, but they are causes 
that lead to tangible results. 

It has already been stated that each principle is 
correlated to a plane, a planet, and a race; and that 
the human principles are, on every plane, correlated 
to sevenfold occult forces. It has already been 
shown how the substances of different planes inter- 



The Secret Doctrine. 169 

penetrate with the "dominant chord" determining 
the vibration on any plane. As to the general 
method of evolution in man, or the relation of An- 
thropogenesis to Cosmogenesis, it may here be noted 
that in the various processes of "cooling and harden- 
ing," by which the Earth has reached its present 
state from the "Fire-mist," or "nebulous mass" 
recognized by modern science, long ages are con- 
sumed and various definite stages are reached. The 
Secret Doctrine teaches that man, like the earth, ex- 
isted potentially in the fire-mist, and that he has 
evolved downward into matter, pari passu, with the 
earth he inhabits, and of which he is an integral 
part. 

Each human being is, therefore, a miniature earth 
(Microcosm) evolving within the greater earth 
(Macrocosm). This is one of the meanings of 
Ezekiel's "wheels within wheels." In a metaphys- 
ical sense, every so-called atom of matter is com- 
posed in the same way, and is going through a sim- 
ilar process. It may thus be seen that the key to the 
whole process of evolution is Analogy. It must 
naturally result from such a process, and from man's 
intimate relation to every principle, process, and 
plane that he epitomizes the whole ; and that through 
expansion of consciousness, and differentiation 



170 Mystic Masonry. 

throughout his long experience, when the consum- 
mation of evolution is reached, man will be at one 
with the All. Knowing and being will be One in 
him. Hence, he will be a god in the Platonic sense. 
This is precisely the view set forth by Herbert 
Spencer as the consummation of human evolution 
where absolute power and supreme knowledge re- 
sult. Place over against this view of the infinite 
possibilities and transcendent destiny of man those 
of any of the exoteric religions or of materialistic 
science, and the old Wisdom Religion stands alone 
as the Divinest Revelation ever made to Humanity. 
During the life of man in the animal body on the 
physical plane, he is composed of the seven prin- 
ciples. These are Atma, Buddhi, Manas, Kama, 
Astral Body, Life Principle, and Physical Body. 
(The order in which they are here named is from 
highest to lowest, or from spirit to matter.) The 
first three, namely, Atma, Buddhi, Manas, are sym- 
bolized by a triangle. This is the oldest "Trinity" 
known to man, and is the origin of all the "Trin- 
ities" in all the exoteric Religions of the World. As 
already shown, the Ineffable Name written in the 
Triangle refers to the One Universal Principle, 
antedating creation, and lying back of all evolution. 
Christos is called the Word, but is not Ain Soph. 



The Secret Doctrine. I7r 

Atma in man represents Ain Soph in Cosmos. 
Hence it is called a "Spark of Divinity;" they are 
one in essence. Atma, Manas, and Buddhi repre- 
sent Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. When Christ 
"ascended to the Father," he raised his conscious- 
ness to the seventh or Atmic Plane, and became in, 
fact (no longer in essence only) One With God. 

These three principles in man compose the Spirit- 
ual Soul; the Immortal part of man; while Atma- 
Buddhi constitute the Higher-Self, the latent or po- 
tential God in man. The lower quaternary Body, 
Life-Principle, Form-Body and Kama (or Desire), 
are symbolized by a square. To make it plain, let 
us say that the triangle incarnates in the square : 
that is, the Soul (spiritual) "descends into matter." 
'It has already been shown in a previous chapter 
what is the orderly relation of the seven principles. 
The Body is the vehicle of Life; Life is the vehicle 
of the Astral Body; the Astral Body is the vehicle 
of Kama; Kama is the vehicle of Manas; Manas is 
the vehicle of Buddhi; and Buddhi is the vehicle 
of Atma. This is the orderly relation or sequence 
of the principles. But as already shown, man is not 
a mere aggregation of principles, any more than he 
is a conglomerate aggregation of atoms, molecules, 
or cells. Just as atoms form molecules; molecules, 



172 Mystic Masonry. 

cells; cells, tissues; tissues, organs; and organs, the 
whole body; so the Principles, while preserving a 
similar orderly sequence, in relation to each other, 
are, at the same time, organized in relation to the 
whole. That is, the Ego, the Thinker, unites with 
its vehicle, the Body. 

Physiology has determined that certain functions 
are performed by certain organs, and that certain 
tracts are sensory, and others motor: that there are 
co-ordinating centers of motion, or of sensation, 
like the cerebellum, the medulla, or the sensory 
ganglia; and has assigned thought, memory, reason 
and volition, to the cerebrum. But neither phys- 
iology nor modern science has been able to arrive 
at the slightest conception as to what Mind, or Soul, 
really are, beyond functions of organs, or results of 
organization. Empirical facts in Hypnotism show 
processes actually taking place that can not be 
classified under any known physiological law. 

The point at which the Triangle touches the 
square; that is, where the Spiritual-Soul forms its 
connecting link with the Physical-Body, is through 
Mind. Kama (the fourth principle, appetite, desire, 
passion, etc.) is not found in the upper triangle, but 
is the first in the square, or lower quaternary; and 
Kama has been called the vehicle of Manas. We 



The Secret Doctrine. 173 

have thus resulting from this association Kama- 
Manas; and the central organ of this conjoined or 
dual principle is the human brain. Here is the 
union of Thought and Sensation; or Knowing and 
Feeling; the union of the desire to know with the 
desire to feel. Here is, furthermore, the origin, 
seat, and nature of self-consciousness in man. On 
the upper side of the point of union we have the 
Will; on the lower side, Desire. This union of 
Manas with Kama, or Mind with Desire, is called 
the lower mind (Lower Manas), because it always 
involves the personal equation. Let the union exist, 
but the desire be entirely subordinate and imper- 
sonal, and the Higher-Mind becomes free. The 
terms of the personal equation are united with, or 
merged in the next higher. This is At-One-Ment 
of the lower man with the Divine: or Christ at-one 
with the Father. So long as the lower mind is held 
in bondage by desire, man can not seek or discern 
the Good or the True. He inquires, "What is good 
for met" Freed from Desire, or the personal bias, 
he inquires after and seeks for that which is good or 
true in itself. When this condition is reached and 
habitually maintained, the square is said to be in- 
closed in the triangle. The whole lower nature is 
said to be at one with the Divine, or Spiritual Soul. 



174 Mystic Masonry. 

Man's knowledge and power are no longer confined 
to, or circumscribed by, the lower plane, or the 
physical body ; but, transcending these by Regenera- 
tion (self-conquest), and becoming perfect in Hu- 
manity, man attains Divinity. In other words, he 
becomes Christos. This is the meaning, aim, and 
consummation of Human Evolution; and this Phi- 
losophy defines the one-only process by which it 
may be attained. The Perfect Man is Christ: and 
Christ is God. This is the birthright and destiny 
of every human soul. It was taught in all the 
Greater Mysteries _j}f Antiquity, but the Exoteric 
creeds of Christendom, derived from the parables 
and allegories in which this doctrine was concealed 
from the ignorant and the profane, have accorded 
this Supreme Consummation to Jesus alone, and 
made it obscure or impossible for all the rest of hu- 
manity. In place of this, the grandest doctrine ever 
revealed to man, theologians have set up Salvation 
by Faith in a man-made Creed, and the Authority 
of the Church to "bind or lose on Earth or in 
Heaven." Law is annulled; Justice, dethroned; 
Merit, ignored; Effort, discouraged; and Sectarian- 
ism, Atheism, and Materialism are the results. 

All real Initiation is an internal, not an external, 
process. The outer ceremony is dead and useless 



The Secret Doctrine. 175 

only^-so far as it symbolizes and illustrates, and 
thereby makes clear the inward change. The cere- 
' mony instructs, but it cannot transform. To trans- 
form means to regenerate; and this comes by trial, 
by effort, by self-conquest, by sorrow, disappoint- 
ment, failure; and a daily renewal of the conflict. 
It is thus that man must "work out his own salva- 
tion." The consummation of initiation is the Perfect 
Master, the Christos, for these are the same. They 
"are the goal, the perfect consummation of human 
evolution. 

Now, with this idea of human evolution, and in 
the light of modern science, what is it to be a 
Master? Not a mythical Master, not one so holy, 
so Divine, so incomprehensible as to be the object 
of blind worship alone, and impossible to be imi- 
tated, an Idol, a Fetish, but one indeed to reverence, 
to love, and, above all, to approach and imitate; an 
Elder Brother, a Compassionate Teacher, a Helper 
of the Human Race. 

By constant struggle and daily conflict the Master 
has conquered self. Life after life he has gathered 
experience. Truly hath he been a "man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief." He has assailed 
all problems; studied all sciences; exhausted all 
litanies; apprehended all philosophies; practiced all 



176 Mystic Masonry. 

arts. At every step he has loved and helped hu- 
manity more and more, and sought his own desires 
less and less. Grown familiar thus with all the 
I lower planes of life by sore trial, by bitter conflict, 
by frequent defeat, by hope deferred, almost despair- 
ing, he has at last renounced self utterly, and so 
become "dead to the world." This is the "Great 
Renunciation." An Infinite Compassion for all that 
lives takes possession of his soul, and an infinite 
peace settles within his spirit. 

"Believe thou not that sitting in dark forests, in 
proud seclusion and apart from man; believe thou 
not that life on roots and plants, that thirst assuaged 
with snow from the great Range; believe thou not, 
O Devotee, that this will lead thee to the goal of 
final liberation." 

"Step out from sunlight into shade, to make 
more room for others." . . . 

" Tis from the bud of Renunciation of the Self 
that springs the sweet fruit of final liberation." 

"The selfish devotee lives to no purpose. The 
man who does not go through his appointed work in 
life has lived in vain." 

"So shalt thou be in full accord with all that 
lives; bear love to men as though they were thy 



The Secret Doctrine. 177 

brother-pupils, disciples of one Teacher, the sons of 
one sweet mother." 

"Compassion speaks and saith : Can there be bliss 
when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved 
and hear the whole world cry?"* 

But, says some modern Agnostic, this is all beau- 
tiful, very fine indeed, but mere sentiment; with no 
foundation in fact, and no possible realization in the 
life of man. It will do for sentimental women, for 
tramps, or lunatics. What, then, is the meaning, 
and what the goal of human evolution ? Is Tantalus 
the one Divinity of the universe? 

Turning now from the ethical side of the prob- 
lem to the scientific, let us see what happens as the 
consciousness of man remounts from the lower 
animal-self toward the spiritual soul ; from the 
physical toward the higher planes. 

We have shown Mind (Manas) to be the connect- 
ing link between the "Upper Triad" and the "Lower 
Quaternary." When man has once passed the plane 
of Savagery in his evolution, Mind becomes more 
and more apparent as the battle-ground of his evo- 
lution. He gradually relaxes tooth and claw, and, 
first, by instinct, then by cunning, and finally by 



*Voice of the Silence. 



178 Mystic Masonry. 

reason and design, pursues the struggle for exist- 
ence. He changes continually his code of ethics, 
for he is continually compelled to compromise, and 
he finds that he can retain more by relinquishing a 
part. His very selfishness leads him to combine and 
co-operate with his fellows. At last his sympathies 
expand. By and by he learns that a "fellow feeling 
makes us wondrous kind." He reciprocates, and 
at last becomes generous. During all this long and 
weary struggle his mind is enlarging, and his con- 
sciousness expanding. He creates for himself a 
world of Thought. It is unreal and unsatisfying, 
because so impermanent; and yet he struggles on. 
He reflects over his varied experience ; seeks causes, 
and discerns principles. He realizes the saying, 
"My mind to me a kingdom is;" "On Earth there is 
nothing great but Man: In Man there is nothing 
great but Mind." Or, the older saying, "All that 
I am is the result of what I have Thought." Mind 
is like an alembic in which are precipitated all ex- 
periences. By evolution man is continually climb- 
ing upward to higher planes. His five senses are 
adjusted to observations and experiences of the 
physical plane; but he has other experiences. The 
senses are narrow and circumscribed; yet even these 
become refined. His tastes alter, his tendencies as- 



The Secret Doctrine. 179 

cend. He is reaching outward as his sympathies 
expand, and upward, as his ideals become higher. 
There is revealed to him a whole world of experi- 
ence in which the lower senses play no part: A 
world of aspiration in which Self is not the goal. 
The very physical bounds of self are loosening, ex- 
panding, disappearing. Hitherto he has been con- 
scious of flashes of intuition; of knowing things he 
has seemingly never learned. He sees inner mean- 
ings, and senses subtler powers. Not only in visions 
and intuitions of the day, but in dreams of the night 
he has experiences beyond the bounds of sense. He 
learns the power of Thought. By conquering Self, 
his Will becomes strong. By subduing passion, his 
mind becomes clear. He has premonitions of com- 
ing events; for all events and thoughts and things 
exist first on higher planes, and are precipitated 
thence into matter. He becomes clairaudient and 
clairvoyant. He has broken the bonds of Self and 
now functions on higher planes. As his senses and 
organs on the physical plane made him Master there 
of brutes, and of physical nature, even so on the 
higher plane, the senses and organs evolved by the 
same Evolutionary Law of experience and choice, 
make him, on the higher plane, Master of men and 
of higher Nature. All the time he is evolving organs 



180 Mystic Masonry. 

and functions, and dealing with matter and force. 
Just as experience and reflection taught him the 
laws and processes of the physical plane, so his ex- 
panded and refined experience and intuitions (spir- 
itual perceptions) teach him the laws of the higher 
plane. 

But, says the physiologist, on the physical plane 
man has evolved physical organs which bring him 
in contact with Nature on that plane. Even so it is 
on all planes, for analogy is the key of interpreta- 
tion, "As below, so above." 

Deep within the recesses of the skull, lying at the 
base of the brain, is a curious little structure known 
as the Pineal Gland — with the Restiform bodies. 
Modern physiology assigns to it no function. Des 
Cartes called it "the seat of the soul." In the aver- 
age individual it is small and apparently useless, 
though its focalized position and symmetrical rela- 
tions to surrounding structures would seem to assign 
to it some very important office. It presents a dif- 
ferent appearance in the very young, the very old, 
and in the idiotic, from that found in the prime of 
life, health, and vigor. It has been called "The 
Third Eye." The Ancient Hindoos called it the 
Eye of Siva, and it should be borne in mind that 
Siva is the third person in the Hindoo Trinity, and 



The Secret Doctrine. 181 

is the Renewer, or Regenerator (not simply the De- 
stroyer). The action of this little "gland" may be 
likened to the bridge of a violin. It renders the 
nerve chords more tense, and thus raises the vibra- 
tions of the brain tissues. It is atrophied, and 
therefore dormant in the average individual, be- 
cause the relaxed chords (using a symbol) cor- 
respond to the vibrations on the physical plane; and 
it is one of the well-known laws of physiology that 
every organ will become atrophied from disuse. 

Going back to our problem of Consciousness, we 
find Mind to be the changes in our states of con- 
sciousness : orderly, when governed by the Will, and 
guided by Reason; disorderly, when swayed by the 
passions, or led by caprice. All the so-called Senses 
are differentiations of the One-Sense-Consciousness 
(Apperception). 

Reference has elsewhere been made to empirical 
proof that in the case of Sight and Hearing; or, 
Light, Color, and Sound, the vibrations are conso- 
nant and interchangeable. Now it can easily be 
seen that if the one sense (consciousness) has dif- 
ferentiated into several Senses, so-called, in man's 
"descent" from higher to lower planes, on his "as- 
cent" from lower to higher planes, the differentia- 
tions must gradually disappear, and one center may 



182 Mystic Masonry. 

combine and synthesize two or more Senses. This 
is precisely what happens in the case of hearing and 
seeing, or in the vibrations producing sound and 
color. Since empirical science has demonstrated 
the fact, the theory may now, perhaps, no longer 
excite only a sneer; for it must be borne in mind 
that the foregoing is one of the theories taught in 
the Ancient Mysteries. 

Here then is the physiological, no less than the 
philosophical basis of Clairvoyance and Clairaudi- 
ence. 

The Eye of Siva is, in fact, an All-Seeing- Eye ; 
for it practically annuls Space and Time as con- 
cepts on the physical plane. 

Whether or not modern Masonry has any such 
tradition, or any such metaphysical or scientific con- 
cept regarding the All-Seeing-Eye so conspicuous 
in its symbolism, such, at least, is its meaning in the 
Secret Doctrine of Antiquity. 

A real Master, then, has the Eye of Siva; the 
pineal gland, dormant in others, is active in him; 
and the vibrations of his brain correspond to the 
synthesis of sound and light. Henceforth, for him, 
Space and Time are no longer illusions, as he lives 
in the one and is Master of all lower planes. Says 
the Voice of the Silence — 



The Secret Doctrine. 183 

"Alas, alas, that men should possess Alaya, be one 
with the great Soul, and that possessing it, Alaya 
should so little avail." 

"Unless thou hearest thou canst not see." 

"Unless thou seest thou canst not hear." 

"To hear and see, this is the second stage." 

So much as to the meaning of the word Master, 
and the methods by which Adeptship is attained. 

Now, as to the nature of the Power he possesses, 
or, the Master's Word. A man's words express 
his ideas, and reveal his character. In this sense 
the creative power of Deity is called the Word of 
God, or the Logos; and the whole process of crea- 
tion, being an outward expression of Divinity, is 
called the Logos. 

"There is in Nature one most potent force, by 
means whereof a single man, who could possess 
himself of it, and should know how to direct it, 
could revolutionize and change the face of the 
world. 

"This force was known to the ancients. It is a 
universal agent, whose Supreme Law is equilibrium, 
and whereby, if science can but learn how to con- 
trol it, it will be possible to change the order of 



184 Mystic Masonry. 

the Seasons; to produce in night the phenomena of 
day; to send a thought in an instant around the 
world; to heal or slay at a distance; to give our 
words universal success, and make them reverberate 
everywhere." 

"This agent, partially revealed by the blind 
guesses of the disciples of Mesmer, is precisely what 
the Adepts of the middle ages called the 'elementary 
matter of the Great Work.' The Gnostics held that 
it composed the igneous body of the Holy Spirit; 
and it was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbat 
or the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of 
Baphomet, or the hermaphroditic goat of Mendes.*" 

Modern Science is slowly re-discovering some of 
the secrets of Antiquity. The "Radiant matter" of 
Professor Crooks, the Cathode ray of Roentgen, 
and other advancements in psychic photography, the 
Mayava Rupa of Baraduc, and, greatest of all, the 
discoveries of J. W. Keely, trench so closely on the 
"elementary matter" of the old Alchemists and the 
Akas of the more ancient Adepts of old India, that 
a student of occultism need no longer be afraid to 
reveal himself. 

There is an old legend which declares that the 



*Morais and Dogma, p. 734, 



The Secret Doctrine. 185 

ancient Atlanteans, not those of Plato's island which 
was a fragment of the great continent, but of the 
Continent which sank, it is said, 50,000 years ago, 
possessed the secret of this "most potent force," re- 
ferred to by Bro. Pike, that they were great Magi- 
cians, and that they did thus "change the face of 
the earth," as Bro. Pike declares possible, and that 
the sinking of the continent was the result. Per- 
haps, if our "rain-makers" succeed in solving a 
little further the problem of vibrations in their rela- 
tions to atmospheric changes, this and many other 
ancient "Fables" may seem less fabulous to modern 
"scientific materialism." When it is stated that these 
terrible forces exist, and may be known and utilized, 
people are not scandalized in this age of dynamite. 
But when it is also stated that the knowledge of 
these forces is concealed from all but trained Adepts 
who have demonstrated their unqualified beneficence 
to man, and that in the hands of vicious, unquali- 
fied, or ignorant persons, they are capable of work- 
ing untold misery to man, the statement usually ex- 
cites derision. 

If this embargo were removed, doubtless mankind 
would not long remain in any uncertainty as to the 
existence of the terrible vrill of Bulwer Lytton. 
If it were revealed to the Spanish Generals or the 



1 86 Mystic Masonry. 

Cuban Rebels at the present time, the contest would 
soon be ended on that unhappy island. 

This force is the universal Life agent, as Bro. Pike 
says, "wherein are two natures and a double cur- 
rent of love and wrath." This ambient fluid pene- 
trates everything. Hence it is the "First Matter" 
of the Alchemists. It is concentrated in man as the 
magnetic living force directed by the Will. He who 
knows its "chord of mass" or the "key-note" of 
its vibrations can, by his Will, waken it from Space 
and send it in mighty waves to do his bidding. The 
real Word of the Master, therefore, in a scientific 
sense, is this tone-key by which the "Principalities 
and Powers of the Air" can be made to do his 
bidding. That any one should possess such power 
and withhold its use, is not easily conceived by the 
average man of today; and that such a Master 
should also conceal his own existence, seems alto- 
gether incredible to an age of Syndicates, and Trades 
Unionists. Such a power would, indeed, be a 
knockdown argument in all competition, and fur- 
nish a very ready way of settling all disputes. 

The ethical training to which reference has been 
made, and which began at the first step of initiation, 
preceded all scientific training in the ancient mys- 
teries; and the Masters are spoken of by Plato, 



The Secret Doctrine. 187 

Iamblichus, and many other writers, as the "Im- 
mortal Gods." But it must not be concluded that 
because the real Master does not enter into competi- 
tion on the physical plane, or parade his gifts for the 
applause of men, that he makes no use of his sub- 
lime Wisdom and transcendent Powers. It would 
be childish to use smch powers for display, to awe 
the ignorant, or to amuse the curious; and such 
Men have long since put away childish things. 
From their secure retreat on the inner or higher 
planes of being, they influence, but do not dominate 
the affairs of men; and many a beneficent move- 
ment is due to their timely aid. 

According to our conception of energy as correla- 
tive throughout Nature's boundless domain, Fohat is 
the synthesis of all the so-called forces of nature. 
It is "Cosmic Electricity Endowed with Intelli- 
gence." In the manifested Universe, Fohat is "that 
Occult electric vital power, which, under the Will of 
the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all 
forms, giving them the first impulse which becomes 
in time law." It is "the Constructive Force of Cos- 
mic Electricity." Fohat has "seven sons, who are 
also his brothers."* These are Electricity, Mag- 



*See Plate I. 



1 88 Mystic Masonry. 

netism, Sound, Light, Heat, Cohesion, etc. What 
modern science calls the "modes of motion," can 
fairly be called definite vibrations. The forces just 
named all manifest on the lower physical plane. 
That is, we see there their effects. If back of all 
forces there is One Force, and if this one force dif- 
ferentiates first into seven, and these seven are in 
their turn divisible into other Sevens, we get the 
idea that the Solar spectrum and the musical scale 
reveal the universal modulus; and that what is 
known to exist in the realm of Light and Sound, 
must also exist in the realm of Electricity, Chem- 
ism; and, in short, with every force and on every 
plane in Nature.* If, therefore, one can discover 
the rate of vibration, the quality and amplitude of 
the "wave-length" in any given case, he will hold 
the Key to that plane. 

Fohat is not only the synthesis of all known 
forces, and endowed with intelligence, but poten- 
tially, before differentiation begins, is the Author of 
the Law of all subsequent correlations, differentia- 
tions, or action whatsoever. 

If this view is considered carelessly it might seem 
to involve materialism or pantheism. But such is 



*See Plate I. 



The Secret Doctrine. 189 

not the case. When one realizes that Fohat is one 
of the highest of the Elohim, or Builders, the Cre- 
ators spoken of in Genesis, the direct agents of Di- 
vinity through which the Ancient of Days or Ain 
Soph creates, this view will be seen to be spiritual 
to the last degree. 

The first impulse of Fohat becomes, in time, the 
law of all subsequent vibration. Fohat is, more- 
over, in the Secret Doctrine, likened to an "Intelli- 
gent Force moved by Will." 

As the various forces and planes in the constitu- 
tion of man are derived from and correspond to 
similar forces and planes in Nature, it can readily be 
seen what potencies are latent in man; and that the 
possession of the knowledge of these planes and 
forces, and a Trained Will to use and direct them, 
would naturally constitute one an Adept, or Master. 
The mere power of thought or of the imagination, 
with a strong concentration of will power, would, at 
all times, enable a real Master to say, "take notice 
thereof, and let it be done." The ignorant would 
naturally say: "What manner of man is this, that 
even the winds and the waves obey him?" 

It is said of the Word A. \U. \M. \ that it has 
seven meanings applicable to seven planes, requir- 
ing, therefore, seven keys; and similar traditions 



190 Mystic Masonry. 

exist with regard to the Tetragramaton of the Ka- 
balah — "He who maketh the earth to quake and an- 
gels and men to tremble" — even Jehovah. For the 
ignorant and superstitious, this has one meaning. 
For the intelligent student of Kabalah, it has many 
and very different meanings. 

The physical plane, that of the body of man, is 
such by virtue of the co-ordinate vibrations of all 
the principles that enter into its construction. The 
physical exists by virtue of the maintenance of the 
Key or dominant chord of that plane. As long as 
this key can be maintained in perfect concord, 
health exists. Whenever the harmony is disturbed, 
disease results; and when the key can no longer 
exist, dissolution of the organism occurs, and death 
is the result. 

The problem of genuine initiation, or training in 
occultism, consists in placing all the operations of 
the body under the dominion of the will; in freeing 
the Ego from the dominion of the appetites, pas- 
sions, and the whole lower nature. The idea is not 
to despise the body, but to purify it; not to destroy 
the appetites, but to elevate and control them abso- 
lutely. This mastery of the lower nature does not 
change the Key of the physical nature as such; but 
subordinates it to that of a higher plane. Without 



The Secret Doctrine. 191 

this subordination, the clamorous lower animal na- 
ture drowns out all higher vibrations; as if in an 
orchestra the bass-viols and the drums only could 
be heard; and noise, rather than harmony, would 
result. Hence the old saying — "He that conquers 
himself is greater than he who taketh a city." 

From such mastery of the lower nature by intelli- 
gent effort and Will power, there results not only 
peace, the silencing of the clamorous lower nature, 
but clearness of vision and power of discernment. 
There results also a sense of freedom and of power, 
and a certainty of Knowledge. In the Bhagavad 
Gita this training is called Yoga, and is denned as 
equal-mindedness and skill in the performance of 
actions. It is distinguished from Hatha Yoga, which 
is mere straining after special powers (medium- 
ship), and is called Raja Yoga; that of the Kingly 
or Divine sort; and is everywhere portrayed as a 
permanent subjugation of the whole lower nature. 
It is, in fact, in science and in a philosophical sense, 
the higher evolution of man. Whatever is gained 
in one life in this direction is carried over to the 
next incarnation; while all apparent gain of 
"powers" in Hatha Yoga (mediumship) is lost in 
future births, or else is a detriment to evolution. 

The potency of the planes in man increases from 



192 Mystic Masonry. 

the lower to the higher, and the whole process we 
have been considering consists symbolically, in 
"placing the square within the triangle :" that is, of 
so purifying the whole lower nature as to make it 
at-one with the higher. The mind that functions 
through the physical brain, governed by the senses 
and appetites, and that first gives man self-con- 
sciousness, now moves one plane higher. Passion no 
longer rules the man and blinds him to universal 
laws and higher principles. The Higher Self in 
man, called his "God," or Christos, was formerly 
"crucified between two thieves;" namely, the 
Higher and Lower Manas. Hence the saying, 
"when I would do good, evil is present with me." 
As the body is crucified (a symbol of death and suf- 
fering), the Christos says to one of the thieves — 
"This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." This 
refers to the Higher Manas, now freed from the 
lower nature. The other "thief," or the brain 
mind, is left to perish with the physical body of 
Christos on the Cross of Time. It may thus be seen 
how the battle-ground of man's lower nature with 
the higher is the mind, and that self-conquest and 
the higher evolution are synonymous. The process 
of this evolution can be expressed in mathematics 
and terms of exact science. Hence the old saying 



The Secret Doctrine. 193 

in the Bible — "I praise thee with my lips, / know 
not the numbers." Silence the dominant chord of 
the lower animal nature, and change the vibration 
to that of the Higher Mind, and "Thou shalt be-' 
come as gods knowing good and evil." 

This change of vibration, with a knowledge of the 
dominant chord and the combination of the key- 
board directed by the Will, is the discovery of J. 
W. Keely. The Roentgen ray is one of the "seven 
forces" into which light, sqund and electricity are 
divisible. The secret of the Crooks tubes has been 
clearly shown to consist in getting rid of a surplus 
of molecules or atoms, and thereby increasing the 
vibration (bombardment) of the remainder; and 
thus liberating, not creating, a "new light." The 
trained will of the Adept can do this, and more. 
He has been seen to make his whole body luminous. 
Since the experiments of Von Reichenbach have 
been verified, and the "illusion-body" photographed, 
such a result can no longer be declared to be a sci- 
entific impossibility. 

It should be borne in mind that our entire phi- 
losophy as related to man proceeds from the em- 
pirical fact of Consciousness, with appeal taken at 
every step to the facts of experience. Our theory 
does not consist in any speculation or assertion re- 



194 Mystic Masonry. 

garding the nature of consciousness itself, but rather 
in using both facts and experiences in the natural 
order of their relations. In the case of the Master 
or Adept, the same potencies and processes are in- 
volved as in ordinary evolution; and none others. 
The different results arise from the fact that in the 
case of the Adept, these ordinary processes are no 
longer trammeled or delayed. 

"The Wise Ones tarry not in pleasure-grounds of 
the senses." 

'The Wise Ones heed not the sweet-tongued 
voices of illusions." 

"Thou shalt not let thy senses make a play-ground 
of thy mind."* 

It may thus be seen that neither causes nor results 
are involved in an untried "working hypothesis." 

This philosophy not only explains the nature and 
origin of all the Christs of history, as the result of 
evolution under natural law, but these all stand as 
"Landmarks," pointing out "the Way, the Life and 
the Truth," in the journey of the soul, and the im- 
mortal destiny of man. Furthermore, every point 
herein made is but a crude fragment derived from 
the Ancient Mysteries, held by the Gnostics and 



* Voice of the Silence. 



The Secret Doctrine. 195 

early Christians, and embodied in or implied by the 
parables, allegories, and glyphs of Freemasonry. 

Initiation therefore must be seen to be both evo- 
lutionary and regenerative; and not a mere empty 
farce or a dead ceremony. 

Taking now this evolutionary process as a fact, 
we may profitably consider further the change that 
occurs in the structure of man's complex organism 
as evolution proceeds. 

We have shown Mind to be the active theater in 
which the real battle is fought for the supremacy of 
the Higher or Spiritual-Soul, as distinguished from 
the lower Animal-Soul. 

"Thou shalt not let thy senses make a play-ground 
of the mind." No doubt many who have read this 
sentence have regarded it as a moral precept only 
ignorant, perhaps, of the fact that there is not only 
a philosophical concept but scientific facts and 
Laws back of all moral truths. 

The mind is the realm of thought, and the sum of 
all experience on both the physical (senses and feel- 
ings) and metaphysical (reason, imagination, Will, 
intuition, etc.) sides of Consciousness. Experience 
may be called the moving panorama of events in the 
conscious life of man. Thought is, therefore, the 
changes in our states of consciousness. Thought is 



196 Mystic Masonry. 

the active movement, and consciousness the passive 
theater of the varied experiences of life. Con- 
sciousness is, therefore, to the life of man what 
Space is to the existence and movements of Cosmos 
— the all-container. The Ego is a self-centered 
"ray ;" a focus ; the "mathematical point" in con- 
sciousness. That which the nucleus is to the living 
cell, the point from which all forces and movements 
emanate, and to which all counter-movements and 
forces tend, such is the Ego — the Thinker of man. 
The first point to be made in real initiation is for 
the Thinker to control the thought. Instead of 
passively and helplessly receiving all suggestions 
that come from the physical senses, or appetites; or 
all that come from ambition, selfishness and pride; 
he selects, and chooses, and Wills what thoughts 
shall come. In this manner he acquires mastery 
over his own mind, and frees his will from the 
dominion of Desire; or rather elevates and purifies 
Desire. He is no longer hag-ridden by vagrant 
thoughts ; or a victim to the ghosts of a remorseful 
memory, or a depraved imagination. That one can 
thus choose the subjects of his own thoughts is really 
within the experience of every one when he comes 
to reflect upon the subject. But few people are 
aware that the mind can be divested of all thought 



1 he Secret Doctrine. 197 

on the physical or brain-side of experience. Yet 
what is revery, or day-dream, or absent-minded- 
ness? We have only to analyze and reflect on our 
ordinary experiences in order to see how natural and 
really commonplace are the operations of these oc- 
cult laws. 

When this process is intelligently conceived and 
persisted in, the mind grows clear and the Will 
strong, and for this change there is a physical basis 
and a scientific law; and there must be correspond- 
ing changes in the physical structure. This change 
occurs on the Kamic plane, Which is now subordi- 
nated to Reason and Will; and also in the Astral or 
Form-body, which is the vehicle of Kama (passion 
and desire). This Astral body is the mold or pat- 
tern around which the physical structure is built, 
which it precedes and survives for a short time 
after death. In relation to the molecules and cells 
which constitute the tissues of the body the Astral 
structure is Atomic. The Astral body of each sepa- 
rate incarnation is the immediate result of the 
thoughts and experiences of the preceding life; 
modified, however, by all previous lives. It is in- 
visible to ordinary vision, but, fortified by the strong 
dregs of Karma, in a gross and passionate individ- 
ual, it may appear as the Ghost of Wraith seen at 



198 Mystic Masonry. 

times near cemeteries. It has also much to do with 
the "ghosts" and "materializations" of the Seance 
rooms. This Astral principle, like all the other 
seven (really six, exclusive of the highest) is seven- 
fold in its constitution in man; and it is the lowest 
of which we have been speaking. This Astral is 
one of the principles of the "square," or lower 
quaternary, and is not, therefore, the real spiritual 
soul, or immortal part in man. 

With this crude outline of the Form-Body we may 
now return to the process of regeneration. The 
change resulting from self-mastery and the subjuga- 
tion of the lower animal nature, strengthens the 
Form-Body and liberates it from the physical shell. 
Instead of this Astral or Form-Body saturated with 
the gross animal spirits (kama) being held to the 
vibrations of the mere animal and physical nature, 
and thus holding consciousness to the key-note of 
the physical plane, involved in the lower animal life, 
the vibrations are now raised one plane higher. The 
action of the Pineal Gland and Restiform Bodies 
heretofore described, now come into play with the 
purified and liberated Form-Body. The physical 
body is still the vehicle of the Ego on the physical 
plane; but is is no longer a dark prison-house with 
animal lust and pride as Goalers. It is a common 



The Secret Doctrine. 199 

experience, and often consciously so, that we "jour- 
ney when we sleep." We go out of the body and 
visit scenes, and gain experiences during the sleep 
of the physical senses, but it is rare that we remem- 
ber, or really understand what happens, for the rea- 
son that all that we know as memory concerns the 
brain on the lower side. Now, in case of the grow- 
ing Adept these experiences become continually 
more frequent and lucid. He retains distinct recol- 
lection, and understands more and more of what 
occurs. By and by he observes the process of 
"going out" and "coming back;" and at length 
learns to repeat the process at will; a perfectly nat- 
ural evolution, be it observed. The story of Peter 
Ibbetson gives an exceedingly graphic and phil- 
osophical description of this "double conscious- 
ness," which is more than justified by the phenom- 
ena of Hypnotism and Somnambulism. The Adept 
from the time he is able to change at will his habi- 
tat, leads a double life, and lives at once in two 
worlds. He has, moreover, "put the last enemy 
under foot." He has, by self-conquest and Will, 
conquered Death. These are they whom Plato and 
the old Initiates call the Immortals. At the death 
or dissolution of the physical body such a one is not 
precipitated into a new world, as a helpless infant 



200 Mystic Masonry. 

is born into the physical, with organs undeveloped, 
and functions untried ; but, already familiar with the 
inner realm from experience, he preserves con- 
sciousness on that plane and is there like an adult 
on the physical plane. It is true that he can not 
function or manifest on the physical plane as be- 
fore, for he has now no longer the physical body. 
But he has learned to live so little on that plane, 
and found thereon so little of real enjoyment, that 
unless he has a special work to do for humanity, or 
an obligation to discharge to others, he finds nothing 
to regret in dying. He has fulfilled the Law of 
Necessity (Karma) by obeying it! 

'This is peace, 
To conquer love of self and lust of life, 
To tear deep-rooted passion from the breast, 
To still the inward strife." 

"For love, to clasp Eternal Beauty close; 

For glory, to be Lord of self, for pleasure 
To live beyond the gods; for countless wealth 

To lay up lasting treasure." 

''Then sorrow ends, for Life and Death have ceased: 
How should lamps flicker when their oil i3 spent? 

The old sad count is clear, the new is clean; 
Thus hath a man content." 



The Secret Doctrine. 201 

"Hark ! from the deep unfathomable vortex of 
that golden light in which the Victor bathes All Na- 
ture's wordless voice in thousand tones ariseth to 
proclaim: "Joy unto ye, oh men of Myalba. 

"A Pilgrim Hath Returned back from the other 
shore." 

"A new Arhan is born"* 

Such in philosophy, in science, in fact, and in 
truth is a Master; as the natural product of self- 
conquest and evolution, and not as a miraculous 
creation. 

The knowledge possessed by such a Master, and 
the power which he finds subject to his Will, are 
derived, as in all ordinary cases, from the whole 
range of his experience. One has only to use good 
judgment and thoughtful observation in experiment- 
ing along the lines indicated, and to go but a little 
way to become convinced of the truth involved in 
the philosophy of self-conquest. It is no "go-as- 
you-please''' evolution. It is rather using the Will 
and subordinating the lower nature to accomplish 
"the Will of God concerning us ;" in place of ringing 
the everlasting changes in sensation and ennui life 



*Voice of the Silence. 



202 Mystic Masonry. 

after life upon earth. In comparison with the ordi- 
nary process of drifting with any tide, it is, indeed, 
a forcing process; but the force is derived from the 
higher nature, and the result is plainly within the 
law of man's moral and intellectual life. 

The term Astral-Body has been used because it is 
somewhat familiar to Western students. The term 
is a very loose one at best, and the plane and struc- 
ture to which it refers are so metaphysical and com- 
plex that it is difficult to find terms in which to de- 
scribe it. The conception of what we ordinarily 
call "matter and force" is, moreover, entirely in- 
adequate in dealing with such problems. Electric- 
ity, for example, is not simply a "mode of motion," 
or a "fluid," but a correlate involving life and intel- 
ligence, with latent consciousness, and moved by 
Will: a duality in itself, according as it manifests as 
the substance of one plane or the energy of another. 

Furthermore, the problem of consciousness as re- 
lated to Space and Time already pointed out, makes 
it difficult to put in exact terms the experience of the 
Ego on the supra-physical planes. In "going out 
of the body," for example, there is a freeing of 
the centers of action always resident in the Astral, 
or the Atomic Body, from the physical organs and 
tissues; and a consequent change of the planes of 



The Secret Doctrine. 203 

consciousness. Synchronous vibrations now occur 
between the centers of consciousness in the Astral- 
Body and the whole Astral Plane; just as before, 
this synchronism existed between the physical body 
and the physical plane in relation to physical con- 
sciousness. The Astral-Body, therefore, need not 
leave the vicinity of the physical, or "travel through 
space," to take cognizance of events elsewhere 
transpiring. This, furthermore, remains true, even 
in cases where the apparition of the individual is 
seen at great distances from where the physical body 
is, at the time, reposing.* Thought is, in every 
case, a vibration molding substance into definite 
forms. Whenever we think of a person near or 
far, we create a thought image of that person. This 
form necessarily varies according to the clearness of 
memory or imagination, and the strength of Will. 
Furthermore, our thought is characteristic of our- 
selves, and in thinking intently of a distant object or 
person, a thought-form of ourselves may appear at 
that place. This may occur or be visible to others, 
and exist unconsciously to ourselves. With a per- 
son of trained habits of thought, who thinks clearly 



*Dr. Baraduc has demonstrated this, by the 
"Thought-Body." 



204 Mystic Masonry. 

and connectedly, and who is possessed of a strong 
will; who knows, also, how to fix and hold the 
thought on an object or a person, the projection of 
the Thought-Body, as above described, becomes a 
comparatively easy matter. Such an Illusion might 
or might not be perceived by another ; nor, except in 
the case of an Adept, could the individual causing 
the Illusion be certain himself whether his experi- 
ment had been successful or not. 

While these facts have been familiar to students 
of occultism for ages, they have seldom been dis- 
cussed in print for the reason that such discussion 
could do no good and would only excite ridicule. 
But now that modern scientific experiment trenches 
so closely on the subject, the discussion may not 
seem so unprofitable. 

In a communication from Paris dated June 27, 
1896, a description of psychic photography is given 
as presented to the Paris Academie de Medicine by 
Dr. Baraduc: 

"Dr. Baraduc explains in part his methods of 
psychic photography, which seem simple enough. 
The experimenter locks himself in a dark room 
where he has previously placed a sensitive plate. 
After seating himself and divesting his mind of 
vagrant thoughts and deliberations, and after steady- 



The Secret Doctrine. 205 

ing his nerves, he concentrates ail his ideas on a 
certain image, be it man, beast, or inanimate object, 
and it will be found that the accuracy of the image 
will be in proportion to the power of his will. If 
no other image has intruded, a perfect likeness will 
have been obtained. In conclusion, Dr. Baraduc 
says that not everybody has this power to control 
his volition, and in order to succeed, a strong imagi- 
nation is absolutely necessary, and an energetic Will 
indispensable." 

Mr. James M. Rusk, of Ohio, reports the same 
result from a similar experiment made by himself 
and confirmed by Colonel De Rochas. 

The only new feature in these experiments is the 
introduction of photography and the consequent 
fixation of the images, and this result is, of course, 
of paramount importance to materialistic science. 
Ten thousand persons will be convinced by a fact or 
an ocular demonstration, where one will perceive 
the truth from reason, philosophy, or intuition. Let 
us have the ocular demonstration, then, by all means. 
Experiment might be facilitated immensely by as- 
sistance derived from the old philosophy, but as this 
is usually ignored or derided, Science will have a 
long and toilsome journey before it apprehends the 
real nature of these illusory images, or deduces from 



206 Mystic Masonry. 

experiment the nature of the Soul. The death-knell 
of materialism is, however, already sounded. "For 
this, and that which we are about to receive, the 
Lord make us truly thankful !" 



The Secret Doctrine. 207 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SECRET DOCTRINE (CONTINUED). 

The Sign of the Master. 

It must not be supposed that in the Ancient Mys- 
teries every Initiate became a Master in the sense 
outlined in the preceding chapters. There were the 
Lesser and the Greater Mysteries. To the Lesser 
all were eligible; to the Greater, very few; and of 
these few, fewer still were ever exalted to the sub- 
lime and last degree. Some remained for a lifetime 
in the lower degrees, unable to progress further on 
account of constitutional defect or mental and spir- 
itual incapacity. The Mysteries unfolded the Build- 
ing of Worlds, the Religion of Nature, the Brother- 
hood of Man, the Immortality of the Soul, and the 
Evolution of Humanity. No ceremony was artificial 
and meaningless ; no symbol, however grotesque to 
the ignorant, was merely fanciful. 

"It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but 
in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we 
must look for the footprints of Science, and re- 



208 Mystic Masonry. 

discover the Mysteries of Knowledge. The Priests 
of Egypt knew better than we do the laws of move- 
ment and of life. . ."* 

Philosophy, however, may give us a Key to sym- 
bolism, a Universal Modulus. True philosophy dis- 
cerns the Plans drawn by Divinity on the Tracing 
Board of Time for the building of Cosmos. 

The Primary Concepts of such a Philosophy are 
few and simple. So, indeed, are the root-forms in 
Symbolism. The changes rung on concept and 
Symbol, as the plan unfolds, become more and more 
complex, even where they are wrought by those who 
know. When from these the symbolism descends to 
parable and allegory in order to clothe the primary 
concept in ethical language, and make it apprehen- 
sible and binding to the ignorant masses, its garment 
and Fiat read, "Thus saith the Lord." 

When, however, Ignorance in high places, or 
cupidity and lust for power interpret, or willfully 
suppress, disfigure and distort the ancient symbols, 
as has been done for lo, these many centuries, the 
masses are not prepared to believe that the real 
truth, uncontaminated by man, has ever been dis- 
covered. The vandals have done their work better 



*Morals and Dogma, p. 734. 



The Secret Doctrine. 209 

and more successfully in thus blotting out all belief 
in the existence of the Old Wisdom, than in destroy- 
ing the records of the Truth itself. The real sym- 
bols are the Modulus of Nature, and man can never 
destroy these. 

"Thales and Pythagoras learned in the Sanctua- 
ries of Egypt that the Earth revolved around the 
Sun, but they did not attempt to make this generally 
known, because to do so it would have been neces- 
sary to reveal one of the great Secrets of the Tem- 
ple, the double law or attraction and radiation, or 
of sympathy and antipathy, of fixedness and move- 
ment, which is the principle of creation and the 
perpetual cause of life. This truth was ridiculed by 
Lactanius, as it was long after sought to be proven a 
falsehood by persecution by Papal Rome." 

"So the Philosophers reasoned, while the Priests, 
without replying to them or even smiling at their 
errors, wrote in those Hieroglyphics that created all 
dogmas and all poetry, the Secrets of Truth."* 

To preserve its authority and its perquisites, Ec- 
clesiasticism will, today, as in all the past, answer 
such statements with neither facts, reason, nor ar- 
guments, but with a curse!! and so long as men 



*Morala and Dogma, p. 842. 



210 Mystic Masonry. 

grovel with fear at the curse will the truth be con- 
cealed. When men are wise enough and brave 
enough to defy both the anathema and the anathe- 
matizer, the whole opposition to light and progress 
will fall to pieces. Till then, the ignorant masses, 
imitating their superiors, will scout, ridicule and 
slander all who speak the truth. Freedom and En- 
lightenment are the only real Saviors of Mankind; 
while Ignorance is the father of Superstition, and 
Selfishness the parent of Vice. 

The Ideal in Church and State, the motive for the 
Ecclesiastical and Political Hierarchies, has been in 
all ages to govern men professedly for their own 
good. The Secret Doctrine teaches man to govern 
himself. So long as Hierarchies subordinate all 
things to the real benefit of man, and give Light and 
Knowledge to all in such measure as they are capa- 
ble of receiving, they are a blessing and not a curse. 
When, however, the Potentate suppresses Knowl- 
edge, claims power by Divine Right, or by inherit- 
ance, rather than by proof of knowledge and by 
service done to man ; when ignorance or disbelief is 
punished as a crime and men torture the body, or 
agonize the mind under that devil's plea — "to save 
the Soul" — then does the Hierarchy become an 
enemy of both God and Man. 



The Secret Doctrine. 211 

Neither Political nor Religious Hierarchy has ever 
existed for any great length of time in the outer 
world without becoming corrupt. The continuance 
of power in such cases must always depend on the 
ignorance of the people; therefore, the Hierarchy 
will resist to the utmost the spread of true enlighten- 
ment. It is for this reason that for many centuries 
the Secret Doctrine and all of its students or ex- 
pounders have been under ban of the Church, and 
of the State, whenever Ecclesiasticism has been able 
to form an alliance therewith. Persecution in every 
form, for opinions' sake, is ever the sign-manual of 
worldliness and irreligion. It is the rule of Might 
against Right, and the trampling under foot of the 
weak and helpless by the strong and powerful; and 
to complete the blasphemy, and monument the 
cruelty, such persecution is generally enacted "in 
the name of the Lord." 

The Altars of Masonry have ever been the 
Beacon-Lights of Liberty; and the Lodge a City of 
Refuge; a Sanctuary of Knowledge and Protection 
to the way-faring Brother of all Nations and 
tongues. Patterning after the Sanctuaries of the 
Ancient Mysteries, and founded on the principle 
of the Universal and Unqualified Brotherhood of 
Man, they have held aloft the Torch of Liberty. 



212 Mystic Masonry. 

If in later times class distinctions and color lines 
have divided the craft, the Lodge has never re- 
sorted to persecution, or been the agent of op- 
pression. When these veils that have for the time 
obscured the true light are removed, and every man 
is regarded for his intrinsic worth alone, and Ma- 
sonry is indeed and in truth no respecter of persons, 
then will this great organization enter on an era of 
prosperity such as is its heritage from all the past, 
and its right by the simple power of Brotherly Love, 
Relief and Truth. 

The traditions of Masonry in later times exclude 
woman from participating in the work of the Lodge, 
but not from all the rights and benefits of the Craft. 
The reasons that have led to the exclusion of women 
need not here be discussed. A sufficient answer to 
all advocates of Androgynous Masonry may be 
found in the history of all attempts to establish or 
to revive it. Each and all have failed, and have gen- 
erally proved fruitful of discord and scandal. Nor 
is woman either the loser or the most to blame for 
this result. The Ancient Mysteries were organized 
schools of learning, and knowledge was the signal 
of progress and the basis of Fellowship. In modern 
Masonry Fraternity alone has usurped the place of 
Wisdom, and in the service of the Lodge to man- 



The Secret Doctrine. 213 

kind its great work has been to preserve unaltered 
the Ancient Landmarks as a heritage to posterity. 
Every true Mason for centuries has thus been a 
Soldier of the Truth, fighting for its Altars and its 
Fires. In this work of the Lodge woman could 
have been of no service. 

While every true Mason is the most loyal of men 
to every office of woman, as Mother, Sister, 
Daughter and Wife; as Companion, Friend, and 
Inspirer of man, he would have been trammeled by 
her presence in the Lodge, and she would have re- 
ceived no benefit by being admitted. When, how- 
ever, the days of Ritualism alone are ended, when 
from the one duty of guarding the altars and light- 
ing the camp-fires, Masonry resumes its prerogative 
as Teacher and Enlightener of mankind, and the 
Philosophy of Nature and of Life are unfolded in 
its Schools and Colleges as with the Maji of old, 
and when with no fear of persecution from time- 
serving Potentate or Creed-ridden Priest, the Light 
may shine for all, then will the doors of real initia- 
tion be as open to woman as to man, as was the case 
in the schools of Pythagoras as shown by Iamlichus. 
The Ancient Wisdom concerned itself largely with 
the Souls of men, and undertook to elevate the 
earthly life by purifying the Soul and exalting its 



214 Mystic Masonry. 

Ideals. It teaches that souls are sexless; and that 
the sex of the body is an incident of gestation. No 
civilization known to man has ever risen to any 
great heights, or long maintained its supremacy, 
that debased woman. Indeed, the Secret Doctrine 
demonstrates with unmistakable clearness that sex- 
ual debasement in any form is the highway to de- 
generacy and destruction of both man and woman; 
and of Nations quite as certainly as of individuals. 

The most debased and horrible chapters in human 
history are recorded in scientific works by medical 
experts. Atavism is here exemplified as nowhere 
else. Here, more than anywhere else within the 
possible experience of man, lies the "Sin against 
the Holy Ghost;" for through this open door, 
through which rush the most unholy passions and 
the hellish fires of lust, it is possible for man to lose 
his human soul and descend to the animals. If any 
one doubts this, let him read — if he can — some of the 
scientific medical works on Sex-perverts, and then 
consult the attendant physicians of the insane and 
the symptoms and records of Lunacy. 

'The first lesson we are taught in Masonry is to 
be good men and true." And the f rst declaration 
made by the neophite in Masonry is that he comes 
to the Lodge to "learn to subdue his passions, and 



The Secret Doctrine. 215 

improve himself in Masonry/' i. e., to engage in the 
building of a fit temple for an indwelling soul. 

It may thus be seen that all the traditions and 
usages of Masonry agree fully with the philosophy 
of the Secret Doctrine as to true Initiation, and 
that both are justified by all experience, by all his- 
tory, and by all scientific discovery and advancement 
up to date. These ancient institutions, derided, 
anathematized, misrepresented, persecuted, and sup- 
pressed, as they have been for the last fifteen hun- 
dred years, will, in the age that is now dawning, 
demonstrate their beneficence and their power; and 
the marvel will be, that the ignorance and brutality 
of man could have so long succeeded in suppressing 
them. It is true, even yet, that among otherwise 
intelligent persons the majority do not believe that 
any such Fountain of Knowledge has ever existed. 
They are looking alone to the future, and waiting, 
and they hail with delight every new discovery in 
science for the betterment of man. It will be for all 
such the greatest of all discoveries that "to go back 
to Plato is to make progress," and that the Egyp- 
tian, Chaldean, and Hindoo Mysteries had, ages ago, 
exhausted all philosophies, apprehended all sciences, 
and recorded their priceless treasures of wisdom in 
glyph and allegory for the benefit of the latest gen- 



216 Mystic Masonry. 

erations of the human race. By and by, even our 
scientists will, like weary and disappointed children, 
become tired in trying to do it all over again by 
themselves, and then they will no longer turn a 
deaf ear to the Immortal, though silent, Voices of 
the Past. But how, some one may ask, were the 
Ancients, even before the dawn of what we call his- 
tory, enabled to make such transcendent discoveries ? 
If, in the preceding chapter, the present author has 
succeeded in presenting even a faint outline of the 
meaning of the word Master, and what Initiation 
really accomplishes, the inquirer will not have far to 
seek for an answer to his question. The Secret 
Doctrine declares that it is the result, not of the 
vain guesses, or the tortuous investigations of igno- 
rant men, but of the recorded and carefully tested 
experiences of generation after generation of trained 
Adepts and Perfect Masters, the Advance-guards 
of Humanity in every age. Things are not true be- 
cause they are old, but old because they are true. 
Immortality belongs to Truth and not to error. A 
thing is not true because God hath said it, or is sup- 
posed to have said it ; God said it because it is true; 
and the whole manifestation of Nature is thus the 
uttered word of divinity. The Master who is 
at-one with both Nature and Divinity discerns the 



The Secret Doctrine. 217 

truth, and teaches and records it for all future gen- 
erations of men. But it is only in an age of free- 
dom and enlightenment that the voice of the Master 
can be heard ; but it should be ever remembered that 
the sole authority of the Master is in the Truth ; 
and not the authority of Truth in the Master. Just 
here lies the distinction between Religion and Super- 
stition. The masses will ever seek a sign, but the 
one only sign of the Master is his service to human- 
ity. "He who can best work and best agree" is 
called a Master. Service and Harmony: these are 
the sign-manuals of the real Initiate. The Ignorant 
may worship as a god him who can produce signs 
and wonders, and when weary of worship return to 
wallow in the mire, forgetful of the miracle. Hence 
the real Masters in all ages have avoided publicity — 
"gone into a mountain apart" — and shunned the 
applause of men, preferring to be despised and 
slandered rather than have the truth ignored, and be 
themselves glorified of men. 



-2i8 Mystic Masonry. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE GREAT LODGE. 



The profound secrecy surrounding the Ancient 
Mysteries, and the obligation of secrecy imposed 
upon every initiate into the Masonic Fraternity arise 
from many causes, and varying conditions, some of 
which have already been pointed out. In times of 
political oppression and ecclesiastical persecution it 
became necessary to conceal the identity of all mem- 
bers of secret fraternities; and, as far as possible, 
the principles of the order were also concealed for 
mutual protection. When to be known as a Mason 
or an Occultist was to be hunted down like a crim- 
inal, to be imprisoned for life, or perhaps to be tor- 
tured and burned, men naturally concealed their 
connection with the Lodge, or their interest in the 
Secret Doctrine. There is probably no degree in 
Masonry today that has not been invaded by mem- 
bers of religious orders like the Jesuits. Those who 
are familiar with the principles of these Sodalities 
are well aware that under the plea that "the end 



The Great Lodge. 219 

justifies the means," no member of these bodies 
would hesitate to take any obligation imposed, in 
order to possess himself of a coveted secret that 
might support the power and maintain the preroga- 
tive of his Sodality, knowing in advance that abso- 
lution for the crime of perjury in violating his 
sacred obligation would not only be assured him, but 
that he would be applauded and perhaps canonized 
for his zeal and his devotion to religion, as many a 
Saint in the calendar has been canonized in the past 
upon far less "Saintly" grounds. 

. In the face of all so-called exposures, and all be- 
trayal, Masonry pursues the even tenor of its way, 
and tyles its lodges as carefully, and inculcates its 
obligation of secrecy just as though apostacy were 
impossible, and perjury a crime unknown to the 
code of civilized communities. Notwithstanding all 
so-called exposures, it would be exceeding hazard- 
ous for any one, except a regularly initiated Brother, 
to attempt to gain admission to the Lodge; and no 
possible motive can be assigned why any honest 
man should desire to receive the rites and benefits 
of the Lodge except in the order and under the con- 
ditions prescribed. But after all other reasons as- 
signed for the secrecy of the Lodge, probably the 
tradition that such was always the rule in the mys- 



220 Mystic Masonry. 

teries, has had more to do with concealment than 
anything else; and the real reason for concealment 
in the mysteries has been herein previously shown 
to be on account of the power that attaches to the 
real knowledge possessed by the Master. The pen- 
alties imposed for violating the solemn obligations 
voluntarily taken, may, at times, have been literally 
executed by the agents of the Lodge in medieval or 
pre-Christian times ; but in modern times these awful 
penalties have undoubtedly been substituted by "the 
excration of all honest men and Masons." In gen- 
uine initiations into the really occult mysteries, the 
penalties for unworthiness in any and all directions 
consisted in the apostate becoming the victim of the 
powers he had himself invoked. He had created a 
Frankenstein which he was no longer able to con- 
trol, and it destroyed him. Hence, the warning was 
true and necessary, but the real method of its exe- 
cution was disguised, except that it was portrayed as 
terrible. Too little is known as yet in the West of 
genuine occultism, to make further explanation in- 
telligible. All space, and every plane of nature is 
full of Life and Intelligence, and Bulwer's "Demon 
of the Threshold" may be neither a joke nor a ro- 
mance, as many cases of obscession recorded in the 
annals of Medicine and Spiritualism abundantly 



The Great Lodge. 221 

prove. The "Principalities and Powers of the Air," 
of which the Apostle speaks, and of which the 
Kabalah treats very fully, are the Elementals de- 
scribed, though but blindly, in ancient occult litera- 
ture. When the real nature of obscession is under- 
stood, and the character of these depraved entities 
becomes known, it will be discerned how little is to 
be gained, and how much is to be risked by invok- 
ing them. Here lies the reason why mediumship 
should be discouraged and regarded as a disease, or, 
at best, a misfortune. Real Seership is a very dif- 
ferent thing indeed from obscession in any form. 
If Seership be compared to the Ecstacy of an inno- 
cent and happy child, obscession may be likened to 
the delirium of drunkenness or madness. 

Some idea may be gained, perhaps, from the 
foregoing of the source and character of the penalty 
for the violation of obligations assumed by the 
Neophite in the mysteries. In the "Mystery of 
Cloomber," Conan Doyle portrays the "idea" but 
makes the execution of the penalty at once fantastic, 
horrible, and impossible. No real Master, even 
such as he portrays, could ever play the bungling 
part of executioner, such as he depicts, but would 
leave the criminal to the snares and devices of his 



222 Mystic Masonry. 

own creation. The imagination of the novelist can 
hardly supply the philosophy of true occultism. 

The stories that have come down to us of the 
magnificent pageantry, and the almost superhuman 
trials attending initiation into the Mysteries, from 
those of ancient Egypt down to Tom Moore's Epi- 
curean, all pertained to the various degrees of the 
Lesser Mysteries. The secrets of the Greater Mys- 
teries were never written or told. What they were 
can only be surmised from a complete philosophical 
knowledge of what initiation really means, and some 
idea as to what the last supreme revelation may be. 
This has probably never been betrayed in any indi- 
vidual case, nor is it likely that it will ever be re- 
vealed, because, as shown in the preceding chapters, 
it is the meeting face to face with one's own god; 
the Higher Self, latent in every man, but now wholly 
revealed. It concerns the things "impossible to 
utter," of St. Paul, an Initiate. The philosophy of 
the whole process may, however, be fairly appre- 
hended as the consummation of the Higher Evolu- 
tion of Man. Thus philosophy, for him who can 
understand it, takes the place of the whole of the 
instruction of the Lesser Mysteries, except such 
practical experience and final training of the neo- 
phite as enable him to enter the Greater Mysteries. 



The Great Lodge. 223 

So far as mere teaching is concerned, or the appre- 
hension of what is to be done, and how, philosophy 
is the teacher, and is better fitted to the present in- 
tellectual age than any other form of instruction. 
When a genuine School for the Revival of the Lost 
Mysteries of Antiquity is established, worthy and 
well-qualified neophites will doubtless receive not 
only instruction, but practical training. 

Hitherto in this work hints,, outlines, suggestions, 
and running comments or relations only have been 
given; and every intelligent reader must have ob- 
served the difficulty of describing that which was 
never intended to be revealed. 

We may now undertake to give a diagram or a 
picture of an idea running through all history like a 
theme in a musical composition. The idea crops 
out here and there in history, but it is not history 
for reasons already made clear. The full-page 
diagram (see Frontispiece) is a Symbol of the Se- 
cret Doctrine, and some of its principal ramifica- 
tions and seats. Like all symbols, it is not the thing 
symbolized ; and, as already declared, it is not a his- 
tory of the Great Lodge and the Secret Doctrine. 
If it should by and by be shown that the Great 
Lodge, historically, had its first seat in Egypt, or in 
Ethiopia, which is possible, instead of in Old India, 



224 Mystic Masonry. 

or in Ireland, which is not impossible, or on the Con- 
tinent of Atlantis, which is more likely still, it would 
not make any difference with our diagram, which, 
as already repeatedly declared, is not designed to 
represent history, but the influence of an Idea upon 
the Civilizations and Religions of the world. When 
the true and complete history of what are called the 
British Druids is written, the legends of the now 
"Unhappy Emerald Island" will be deciphered, and 
the beautiful legend of Venus rising from the Foam 
of the Sea will not be the most grand or beautiful 
of Ireland's stories. 

On the scientific presumption that eveiy effect 
must have had an adequate cause, we have the 
right to assume that the Landmarks of Masonry, 
and the traditions of the Secret Doctrine, are not 
without foundation in fact. Furthermore: the 
further back we go in history, and beyond history, 
the grander become the monuments of the Secret 
Science. Pythagoras and Plato found all their 
knowledge ready-made in the Egyptian and Baby- 
lonian Mysteries. The deeper we delve into the 
past the grander become these Ancient Monuments. 
The Zodiac and the Pyramids alone, by the knowl- 
edge they betray of Astronomy, Mechanics, Mathe- 
matics and Architecture, demonstrate the existence 



The Great Lodge. 225 

of a science in pre-historic times such as we mod- 
erns have not yet been able to imitate, or even to 
read. We are like miners following a vein of gold 
in a crevasse of the rocks. Precious ore crops out 
here and there, and is again concealed; it grows 
richer as we proceed, till the conviction becomes 
irresistible that deep in the bowels of the earth, or 
beneath some mountain range, there must be a 
great "pocket," the real source of all this buried 
treasure. The analogy is complete, and the reason- 
ing scientific. But if the ancient monuments on the 
physical plane are unimpeachable, and those in the 
heavens unapproachable, they are still more tran- 
scendent in the Intellectual and Spiritual realms. 
There is not a religion, a science, or a philosophy, 
known to man, that cannot be traced back to Old 
India; with this difference, however, that we have 
only the fragments, the broken columns, or the 
disjointed images of a complete and perfect struc- 
ture as it once existed. The oldest books or written 
records known to us today, such as The Egyptian 
Ritual of the Dead, and the hymns of the Vedas, 
have scarcely yet been spelled out by their letters. 
Such translations as have been given us are both 
superficial and literal, and the inner meaning, 
always expressed in symbols, seldom appears at all. 



226 Mystic Masonry. 

The interpretation that has heretofore been put 
upon them by Philologists, few of whom can rank 
as Symbologists, and not one of whom in Europe is 
a real Occultist, is that they are the crude imagin- 
ings of a primitive people who knew nothing of sci- 
ence, and who were devoted to superstition. These 
translators have achieved fame as "Great Oriental- 
ists," and they have undoubtedly done a great work 
in introducing ancient languages to modern times, 
and in doing their best to interpret ancient belief, 
but in nearly all instances these orientalists have 
been biased by the traditions and false lights of 
modern Christendom. In another chapter of this 
work it has been shown what infinite pains has been 
taken by ignorant Monks, and by zealous Eccle- 
siastics, to obliterate these ancient records, and to 
deface them by interpolations and forgeries in order 
that the Christian records and traditions might stand 
unchallenged. The best of our Orientalists are, even 
unconsciously, influenced by the results that have 
been thus achieved. When Western students are 
capable of apprehending, and ready to receive the 
true interpretation of the ancient symbolism, it is 
possible that native scholars who not only know 
Sanskrit, but who are thoroughly familiar with the 
Secret Doctrine, may be found to enlighten them. 



The Great Lodge. 227 

Take a single instance. The Atomic Theory, 
known to have been more or less familiar to certain 
ancient Greek writers, has made great progress in 
Modern science. But in no form conceived by- 
Modern science — and the forms have been many 
and contradictory, has this theory proved competent 
to account for all of the phenomena observed. It 
has remained for us, therefore, still an Hypothesis 
and not a Law. The Atoms of Modern Science, 
whether conceived as solid, rluidic, gaseous, or 
etheric, — for they have been imagined to be all of 
these — are, nevertheless, regarded as dead atoms. 
Even when conceived as mere neutral centers, or 
"mathematical points," they are still far removed 
from Life or Intelligence. Leibnitz conceived them 
as Monads, each a living mirror of the Universe, 
every Monad reflecting every other. "Compare 
these views," says a modern writer, "with that in 
certain Sanskrit Slokas translated by Sir William 
Jones, in which it is said that the creative source of 
the Divine Mind." . . . "Hidden in a veil of 
thick darkness, formed mirrors of the atoms of the 
world, and cast reflection from its own face on every 
atom." When we have learned more of Radiant 
Matter, and the Roentgen Ray, we shall have come 



228 Mystic Masonry. 

far nearer this old Atomic Theory, and Matter will 
no longer be regarded as "dead and inert." 

The Hymns of the Vedas were doubtless the 
original allegorical form of the Secret Doctrine, 
and the Rishis — called "gods," but really Sublime 
and Perfect Masters — were their creators. 

Antedating the Vedas, then, was the Great Lodge 
of Adepts, who created the Religion, inspired the 
Civilization, and taught the profound Science that 
made old India great. If only traditions and broken 
monuments remain, these still outrank all modern 
achievements of man. The ancient government was 
Patriarchal ; the Ruler was also a Master Initiate, 
and the people were regarded as his children. In 
those ancient days a Reigning Prince considered it 
not beneath his dignity to go into the desert alone, 
and sit at the feet of some inspired recluse, in order 
that he might receive more light, which he would 
again dispense to his people. Instead of teaching 
superstition and idolatry, when the real meaning of 
the Vedic symbolism is revealed, it will, perhaps, be 
found to be the thinnest veil ever imposed between 
the Sublime Wisdom and the apprehension of men. 
The old' gods were the symbolical or personified at- 
tributes of Nature, through which man was taught 
to apprehend the existence of the* Supreme Spirit. 



The Great Lodge. 229 

This was not Polytheism, nor Idolatry, but a system 
of teaching that which could not be altogether de- 
fined, and of pointing to that which must forever 
remain unknown, and Unknowable, by the aid of 
symbol, parable, and allegory. No word-painting 
known to man seems half so beautiful as some of 
these ancient parables and allegories. Not only was 
every oblation of love and duty portrayed, and every 
joy of home and affection illustrated, and the most 
common duties of life, feats of valor, devotion, and 
self-sacrifice depicted, but in a language so musical, 
and in rhythm and meter so perfect, as to make the 
whole recital more like a symphony than a poem. 
The whole composition was a mantram. On nearly 
every page of the Anugita it is said — in relation to 
this or that — "they relate this ancient story, in the 
form of a dialogue, which occurred" — so and so. 

If India today is like an old woman in her dotage, 
and her Priests have turned Harpies to devour her 
remaining spiritual life, the record of primeval 
greatness can never be dfimmed or destroyed. 

In the olden time the Brahman was indeed "twice- 
born, ,, and it was the second birth alone that made 
him Brahman. The parables, then, were not in- 
vented to conceal the truth from those who could 
apprehend it, or to keep the people in ignorance in 



230 Mystic Masonry. 

order that the Priests or Ruler might preserve their 
power. Power came not from the people, but from 
the possession of supreme knowledge, and this 
knowledge, continually exercised and exemplified, 
was the badge of office and the sign of authority. 
To such a Priesthood the people rendered most will- 
ing obedience. The doors of Initiation were open 
to all who had evolved the capacity to "Know, to 
Dare, to Do, and to Keep Silent," in regard to that 
which should not be prematurely revealed. 

With the light of the Great Lodge standing in the 
midst, the Religion of the people was a perfect rep- 
resentative of Science and Philosophy, in which 
superstition and idolatry found no place, hence the 
symmetry in our diagram of the old Wisdom-Reli- 
gion. 

The religion of India being thus inspired by the 
Great Lodge was expressed in the Hymns of the 
Vedas. This was the old Brahmanism, the Religion 
of Brahm; the Father-Mother of All. 

But in time the Priesthood became corrupt; the 
people forsook the ancient worship. Then came 
Chrisna, and later Buddha, to restore that which 
was lost. The Brahmins, now no longer "twice- 
born," but a priestly caste, jealous of power, since 
they were no longer real Masters, arose in rebellion, 



The Great Lodge. 231 

and the mission of Buddha largely failed in India, 
and found its principal converts in Ceylon, in dis- 
tant lands, and the isles of the sea. 

The religions of Egypt and Chaldea had back of 
them the same Secret Doctrine, or Mysteries; and 
they were also both Scientific and Philosophical. 
But Egypt and Chaldea repeated the folly of India, 
and perished with the degradation of their religions. 
Traditions of the Secret Doctrine still existed, and 
Masters like Hermes, Zoroaster, Confucius, and 
Laotse appeared in different lands from time to time 
to revive the old religion under new names, and 
often under a different form of symbolism. Pythag- 
oras and the Schools of the Persian Maji for many 
centuries kept the true light burning. The conquest 
of Egypt by Cambyses, as already referred to, com- 
pleted the ruin of the land of the Pharaohs, and 
Pythagoras and Plato became the links between the 
old philosophy and the Christian Era, together with 
the Jewish Kabalah, derived jointly from the Mys- 
teries of Egypt and Chaldea, though more largely, 
perhaps, from the latter. 

From the Essenes, the Schools of Alexandria, then 
in all their glory, from the Kabalah and the philoso- 
phy of Plato, the Christian mysteries were derived. 
During the first three centuries of our era these doc- 



232 Mystic Masonry. 

trines flourished; but were finally crushed by the 
conquests of Constantine, and then came the dark 
ages. 

The Religion of Jesus was in every respect that 
of the Mysteries; it was the same old Wisdom-Re- 
ligion, though the ethical features were more pro- 
nounced, as being most needed among what was 
called "a generation of vipers," and a " stiff-necked 
and rebellious people." The ethical teachings of 
Jesus in time give place to Priestcraft and Sacerdo- 
talism; to worldly power, and conquest; and the re- 
ligion of Constantine was finally replaced by the 
"Holy Inquisition," a religion of torture and blood- 
shed. 

The Sufis, among the conquering Mohammedans, 
knew the Secret Science, but their power paled in 
the presence of the "Sword of the Prophet." 

Freemasonry, though not a lineal descendant of 
the ancient mysteries, may justly be regarded as a 
connecting link between the ancient wisdom and 
modern times. While imitating many of the ancient 
rites and ceremonies, and preserving many of the 
ancient landmarks, and transmitting to modern times 
a Grand Ideal, Masonry stands as one of the great- 
est benefactors of the present age. If it has pre- 
served only the broken fragments of ancient gran- 



The Great Lodge. 233 

deur, it has, nevertheless, cherished and honored 
these as a priceless inheritance. Will Masons really 
undertake the noble and glorious work of rebuilding 
the City and Temple of the Lord? Will they unite 
to restore the primeval wisdom and glory? Will 
they search diligently among the rubbish for the 
"Stone that the Builders rejected," * and for the 
"Lost Word of the Master" ? Alas ! who can say ? 
There is another link to our chain of evidence 
and line of transmission. The grips, signs, and 
passwords, by which a Mason recognizes a Brother, 
pertain to the Lesser Mysteries. The real Master 
knows his fellows by other signs. It has been else- 
where shown that the true Adept is both clairvoyant 
and clairaudient. There is a magnetic atmosphere, 
or radiation, around every human being, and, in- 
deed, something of the kind around every animal 
and every inanimate object. Every one feels this 
magnetic aura when coming in contact with others, 
even though they may see nothing, and may often 
be unconscious of its effects. This atmosphere of 
the individual is the source of what is called "Sym- 
pathy," and "Antipathy;" or attraction, and repul- 
sion. It is not imaginary, but real. It is the focal- 



*See Plate IX. 



234 Mystic Masonry. 

ized result of individual character, and contains all 
the potencies and qualities of the individual's life. 
It is composed of matter, is magnetic, has a definite 
mode of motion, and definite color. It may be ab- 
sorbed by or transmitted to another. The vibrations 
incident to it are the co-ordinate result of the com- 
bined and varying activities of the Principles in 
man. The Key-note in every individual is thus de- 
termined as a scientific fact in matter. In the sen- 
sualist, and in all who are degraded by passion and 
selfishness, the color of this aura is red, like the 
comb of a cock; and the sensation which it pro- 
duces upon the sensitive and pure is often described 
as hot and Stirling. In an individual who is unselfish 
and pure-minded, the color may alternate between a 
golden yellow and blue, and the effect described by 
the sensitive is that it is cool, restful, and inspiring. 
If the foregoing is true, and it is easily verified, 
and if a real Master is able to see all of these con- 
ditions which are usually invisible to others, he 
would hardly need to depend upon "grips, signs, or 
passwords" to recognize a Fellow. Man betrays 
his character, his heredity, his ideals, and all his 
past life in every lineament of his face, in the con- 
tour and pose of his body, in his gait, in his hand- 
writing, in the lines in his hand, in the tones of his 



The Great Lodge. 235 

voice, in the expression of the eye ; in short, no man 
possesses character. Character is that which he al- 
together is, and not something apart from himself. 
One need not be a Master to discover all this; he 
needs only to observe, to think, and to reason on 
what he sees. In even the ordinary walks of life 
the Artist, the Musician, the Mechanic, all recog- 
nize their fellows by signs that are familiar and un- 
failing. It can hardly be imagined that in the higher 
science, and in the case of the deeper student or 
Adept, the signs of character should be less pro- 
nounced or less plain, or that the Adept, possessed 
of far finer senses and a wider range of knowledge, 
should fail in interpreting them. The individual 
who is really sincere and devout will not fail to 
recognize sincerity and true devotion in an acquaint- 
ance or in any character in history that possessed 
these virtues. Hence it is that the Student of the 
Sacred Science or Occultism, though not himself an 
Adept, learns to recognize by unfailing signs those 
in the present or in the past who really know the 
true wisdom. Its signs and symbols are not the 
stolen Shibboleths by which the real student can be 
betrayed. Every Mason knows enough of the pic- 
ture language or Art Speech to be able to speak of 
many things in the presence of others without re- 



236 Mystic Masonry. 

vealing the secrets of the Lodge. Even the crim- 
inal classes have their dialects or patois. 

History is full of pretenders in Occultism. Pre- 
tension alone is a sign of ignorance, and the proposi- 
tion to "sell the truth" is always a sign of fraud. 
There are, however, many names in history that 
have been covered with obloquy, and their possessors 
charged with fraud and imposition, who were, never- 
theless, genuine Adepts, if not Perfect Masters. 
We must distinguish between self-conviction that 
comes from the pretender's own mouth and those 
accusations that come from others and are unsup- 
ported by evidence. The pretender is often loaded 
with honors and found rolling in wealth, as the re- 
ward of deceit and lying, of fraud and corruption, 
which he is shrewd enough to conceal. On the other 
hand, the real Master is often gibbeted by the popu- 
lace and anathematized by the church, because he 
is neither time-serving nor willing to barter the 
truth for gold. 

All along the line of history may be found those 
who possessed the true light. Concealing both their 
wisdom and their own identity from vulgar notice 
and foolish praise, they have walked the earth un- 
seen and unknown to the many, but always known 
to their fellows, and to all real seekers after true 



The Great Lodge. 237 

wisdom. The ignorance of the rabble, the zeal of 
the superstitious, and the "Vicegerent of God" have 
often made sad inroads among the servants of the 
Great Lodge; yet they have never been altogether 
exterminated; they have always existed to bear wit- 
ness; and they exist today! If the reader is ready 
to deny all this, of course it can make no difference 
to the real Adept, and it is certainly a matter of in- 
difference to the present writer. One can do no 
more than to state candidly what he believes, and 
to set forth that which he knows to be true. 

These Adepts, or Masters, have, in every age, 
constituted the Great Lodge. Whether they con- 
gregate beneath vaulted domes, or meet at stated 
times, no one would be likely to know unless he be- 
longed to the same degree; but one thing is very 
certain, and that is, that they bring help and knowl- 
edge to the world when most needed, and they are 
working thus today in the West as they have not 
done before for many weary centuries. They are 
enabled to work now, because the ground has been 
prepared for them by "one who knew," and who 
served them to the death in the face of scorn and 
slander. They have been aided also by many igno- 
rant but faithful believers in their existence, and in 
their work, who have been rewarded at every step 



238 Mystic Masonry. 

by "More-Light." Almost coincident with the close 
of the present century is the close of a great cycle: 
namely, the first cycle of five thousand years of the 
Kali Yuga. Aside from unusual astronomical con- 
junctions, many perturbations in space, earthquakes, 
cyclones, and tidal waves, there are also predicted 
great social upheavals, political changes, and both 
mental and physical epidemics. In other words, as 
is already apparent to all who read the signs of the 
times, the present is a transition period, and what- 
ever influences are to mold the coming century must 
begin their operations at the present time. This is 
therefore the seed-time, and the harvest will be by 
and by. 

Note — Many references in literature might be ad- 
duced giving accounts of the existence of the Great 
Lodge. Two of these may here be mentioned, viz., 
that given in the Life of Apollonius Tyanaeus of his 
visit to the Adepts of India, and the account of Fla- 
mel and the Adepts in an old book called Hermippus 
Redivivus, by Campbell. The present object is, how- 
ever, rather to unfold a philosophy than to gather 
facts; to explain what a Master may be, rather than 
to point out their abodes. 



An Outline of Symbolism. 239 



CHAPTER IX. 

AN OUTLINE OF SYMBOLISM. 

A man standing by a horizontally revolving wheel 
might be taken as a symbol of every vessel made of 
clay, whether for honor oir dishonor. Every detail 
of ornament or of shape might hold a legend, an 
allegory, or a parable; or indicate a use; but the 
Potter at his wheel would be a universal and all- 
including symbol; a pictorial expression of creative 
thought in man. The Chinese written-language is 
nothing more than symbolical writing, each of its 
several thousand letters being a symbol. This pic- 
torial expression of an idea or a thought, this Art- 
speech, is Symbolism. When the symbols are of 
familiar things, and as various as human experience, 
the knowledge conveyed is common. When the 
symbols are few and simple, whether commonplace 
or grotesque, like a point, a circle or a square, or a 
dragon, or a man with horns, the knowledge con- 
veyed is not for the masses, but for him alone who 
holds the key. Take the following simple series: a 



240 Mystic Masonry. 

point • , a circle Q, a point within a circle O; the 
circle horizontally divided 0; the lower half again 
divided © ; the upper half divided ©; a cross within 
the circle ©; the cross alone -i — I — u ; and we have 
the series emanating from the point and the circle. 
If, now, any process in Nature can be found to un- 
fold in the same orderly manner, then any one of 
the series of symbols would be found to symbol- 
ize a definite stage in the process of nature. Hence, 
the meaning of the symbol would expand, just in 
proportion as one's knowledge of the natural process 
increased. If nature's planes are seven, and each 
plane sevenfold, there would come to be groups of 
symbols pertaining to each plane, and a key to each 
group. Take, for example, the symbol ©. Aside 
from the philosophical meaning as the third in the 
series (OO©) of Mother-Nature within Infinitude, 
it represents a universal law of proportion, and the 
exact mathematical ratio of the circumference to its 
diameter throughout nature; applicable alike to the 
circle of a pinhead or a sun. Here then would be 
a symbol in Mathematics or Geometry, correlating 
Space and Time with Form and Proportion. Such 
a symbol would, however, have little meaning ex- 
cept to the philosopher or the Mathematician. To 
the latter the Greek »r, or the proportion 1:314159, 



An Outline of Symbolism. 241 

or to the Kabalistic 113:355, would at once recall 
the original symbol and the whole series. If, in ad- 
dition, our Mathematician knew the different ratios 
of vibration incident to the three planes of evolu- 
tion represented by O @, he would have the key 
to occult physics, and could forecast results, mea- 
sure effects, and induce changes beyond the ordi- 
nary plane of crude matter. 

The simple series to which I have referred will 
illustrate the whole science of symbolism. 

Added to this science of Symbolism there is an 
Archaic Art-Speech, by the use of which a double 
meaning is given to language, so that the most ordi- 
nary form of speech may be used to convey a deep 
scientific or philosophical meaning. This gives rise 
to the allegory and parable, the outer form of which 
may convey to the ignorant a lesson in ethics, and 
to the learned a principle in science. The most 
complicated form of this symbolism and Art-Speech 
known to modern times is, perhaps, the Jewish 
Kabalah, from which most of the glyphs of Free- 
masonry are derived. The object of the present 
work is not to explain all these symbols, for that 
would require a volume of symbolism, and have 
but little value when written except to the curious. 

Perhaps the most familiar symbol of a Mason is 



242 Mystic Masonry. 

the Square and Compass, found in every Lodge, and 
worn as a badge of fraternal recognition. We are 
told in the Lodge that the Square is an instrument 
with which the practical Mason measures and lays 
out his work, but we as free and accepted Masons 
are taught to make use of it for the more noble and 
glorious purpose of squaring our conduct with the 
golden rule, with principles of right and justice, etc. 
So also with the Compass ; the practical use is made 
symbolical of the higher moral obligation, to cir- 
cumscribe our desires and keep our passions within 
due bounds. But Masonry is "a system of Morals 
illustrated by Symbols," and something more; and 
there is hence a science and a philosophy concealed 
in the symbolism of the square and compass. This 
may be outlined as follows: The Square with its 
one right angle and its scale of measurements ap- 
plies to surfaces and solids, and deals with the ap- 
parently fixed states of matter. It represents soli- 
darity, symmetry and proportion; and this involves 
the sciences of arithmetic and geometry. The Com- 
pass with movable angle set in the Lodge at an 
angle of 6o°, applies to the circle and the sphere; 
to movements and revolutions. In a general sense, 
the square is a symbol of matter, and the earth; the 
Compass, of Spirit and the heavens. In the Lodge 



An Outline of Symbolism. 243 

the square and compass cross each other, and this 
fact is made a symbol of progression, from the de- 
gree of Entered Apprenticeship to that of Master. 
The compass is set at an angle of 6o°, and is repre- 
sentative of the movements of Spirit, and, if crossed 
at a certain distance from the angle, will produce 
an equilateral triangle; the three angles and the 
three sides equal, it now represents perfect equili- 
brium, or proportion.* 

"For the Apprentice, the points of the compass 
are beneath the Square. For the Fellowcraft, one is 
above and one beneath. For the Master, both are 
dominant, and have rule, control and empire over 
the symbol of the earthly and material.t 

If the reader now refers to what was said in a pre- 
vious chapter concerning the descent of Spirit into 
matter, and the First Trinity represented by a tri- 
angle; Matter, Force and Spirit (Law); and in 
Man — Manas, Buddhi and Atma ; he will readily see 
that the compass may fairly represent this primary 
trinity, concealed under the square of matter, till by 
progression it emerges, and finally, in the Master's 
hands, gains dominion over matter. In the man of 



*Radius of circle and chord of arc equal. 
t Morals and Dogma, p. 854. 



244 Mystic Masonry. 

ignorance (sin), the spirit is concealed, and the 
body and its passions hold dominion. This is the 
state of the Neophite, or Entered-Apprentice. In 
the Fellowcraft's degree, the symbols are interlaced; 
and in the Master's, Matter is subordinated to Spirit. 
The lectures on the several degrees explain the 
method by which the Compass (Spirit) may gain 
dominion over the Square (body and passion) 
through the greater activity of Spirit, "in circum- 
scribing our desires, and keeping our passions 
within due bounds." The perfect equilibrium of 
spirit and matter is symbolized by the six-pointed 
star,* which is again only another form of the 
Square and Compass, each now having a base-line 
from which to form a triangle. Inclose the star in 
a circle, which symbolizes Infinity, and you symbol- 
ize the harmony, or at-one-ment of the Spirit that 
descended, and the body, now purified, with Divin- 
ity, or the Over-Soul. Place within the Star thus 
inclosed the Egyptian emblem of Life, o , and we 
symbolize Immortality, as the result of regeneration. 
Transform the circle into a serpent and it now sym- 
bolizes Wisdom, as the crown or result of equilib- 
rium; and is also a double glyph of the return of 



*See plate VII. 



An Outline of Symbolism. 245 

matter to its source in spirit. Separate the tongue 
and tail of the serpent by a Thor's Hammer, or 
Svastica, inclosed within a circle, and it symbolizes 
regeneration through conquest of animal sense, pre- 
cisely as taught in the Lodge, under the spiritual 
meaning of the symbol of the Compass. 

''Freemasonry is the subjugation of the Human 
that is in man, by the Divine; the conquest of the 
Appetites and Passions, by the Moral Sense and 
Reason; a continual effort, struggle, and warfare of 
the Spiritual against the Material and Sensual. 
That victory, when it has been achieved and se- 
cured, and the conqueror may rest upon his shield 
and wear the well-earned laurels, is the True Holy 
Empire." 

The Masonic Apron made of lambskin symbol- 
izes innocence or purity, the condition required of 
candidates in all real initiation.* The shape of the 
apron is that of a perfect square surmounted by a 
triangle. We have here the three and the four, 
making seven; the triangle representing spirit, the 
square representing matter; the triangle represent- 
ing the threefold attributes of the One; the square 
representing the four elements. As spirit, the trian- 



*See Plate XII. 



246 Mystic Masonry. 

gle represents, or is symbolized by, heat, light and 
flame. 

The Entered Apprentice starts on his career with 
the triangle surmounting the square (spirit has not 
yet descended into matter). As he progresses the 
descent takes place, and we have the triangle in the 
square, as heretofore illustrated; and finally as a 
Master the ascent of the square into the triangle 
begins, which every Master Mason will understand. 
Masonry being a "progressive science," the progress 
of the neophite is thus made to conform to the 
process of evolution and the descent of spirit into 
matter, and this is illustrated by the manner in 
which he is taught to wear his apron in each degree 
in the Blue Lodge. The Entered Apprentice is not 
only a "hewer of wood and a drawer of water/' but 
he is a novice, taking his first instruction, and this is 
symbolized by his apron. 

The tradition of the Master's Word, of the power 
which its possession gives to the Master; the story 
of its loss and the search for its recovery; the tra- 
dition of the Ineffable Name in connection with the 
Lost Word, showing that it could not or should not 
be pronounced, except with bated breath ; or, as the 
Hindoo tradition declares, "with the hand covering 
the mouth." The symbolism of the three greater 



An Outline of Symbolism. 247 

and three lesser lights, and the play made in many 
places on the word Light itself, in conjunction with 
the Lost Word, all these references and uses con- 
stitute a complicated Symbolism working in and 
toward a common center or glyph, which, taken iu 
conjunction with the building and restoration of the 
Temple, constitute the secret Symbolism of Ma- 
sonry, and illustrate the whole process of Initiation. 
What real initiation is has been outlined in a pre- 
vious chapter. These symbols, when correctly in- 
terpreted, serve two purposes. First: they reveal a 
complete philosophy of the Creation of the Uni- 
verse and of Man, unfolding all essences, powers, 
and potencies, and their mutual relations and cor- 
relations. Second: they unfold the process of Ini- 
tiation as synonymous with the uninterrupted evo- 
lution of man guided by knowledge and design along 
the lines of least resistance. In the third degree the 
candidate impersonates Hiram, who has been shown 
to be identical with the Christos of the Greeks, and 
with the Sun-Gods of all other nations. The supe- 
riority of Masonry at this point over all exoteric 
Religions consists in this: All these religions take 
the symbol for the thing symbolized. Christ was 
originally like the Father. Now He is made iden- 



248 Mystic Masonry. 

tical with the Father.* In deifying Jesus the whole 
of humanity is bereft of Christos as an eternal 
potency within every human soul, a latent Christ 
in every man. In thus deifying one man, they have 
orphaned the whole of humanity ! On the other 
hand, Masonry, in making every candidate personify 
Hiram, has preserved the original teaching, which 
is a universal glyph. Few candidates may be aware 
that Hiram whom they have represented and per- 
sonified is ideally and precisely the same as Christ. 
Yet such is undoubtedly the case. This old philos- 
ophy shows what Christ as a glyph means, and 
how the Christ-state results from real Initiation, or 
from the evolution of the human into the Divine. 
Regeneration is thus given a meaning that is both 
apprehensible and attainable; both philosophical 
and scientific; and at once ideal and practical. In 
the Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name of Deity, 
the Greek followers of Pythagoras found a glyph 
by which they both expressed and concealed their 
philosophy, and it is the Hebrew tetrad ihvh, or 
"Yod, he, vau, he," that is introduced into Masonry 



*Here lies the true meaning of Abiff, "of, or from 
my Father." Hirani=C7ins£os, and ABiFF="at one 
with tlhe Father," i. e., "of," or "from." 



An Outline of Symbolism. 249 

with the Pythagorean art speech. The devout 
Hebrew, in reading the sacred Text, when he came 
to the tetrad ihvh, substituted the word Adonai 
(Lord), and if the word was written with the points 
of Alhim, he called it Elohom. This custom is pre- 
served in Masonry by giving the candidate a substi- 
tute for the Master's Word. The Hebrew tetrad 
"Yod, he, vau, he," is produced by repeating the 
"he." The root word is a triad, and the quater- 
nary is undoubtedly a blind. The Sacred word is 
found in the mysteries as a binary, a trinary, and a 
quaternary; as with the Hindoos we have the om, 
and the aum, indicating different methods of pro- 
nouncing the Sacred name. The Pythagorean Tet- 
raktys is represented by numbers, 1, 2, 3, 4=10, 
and by points or "Yods" in the form of a trian- 
gle;* this is called the "lesser tetraktys," while 
a triangle composed of eight rows in the same form 
and containing thirty-six "Yods," or points, is called 
the "greater Tetraktys." This corresponds to the 
three lesser lights, and three greater lights of the. 
Blue Lodge, though the monitorial explanations in' 
the lodge are, to say the least, incomplete. In the 
Pythagorean philosophy both the lesser and greater 



*See Plates V and VIII. 



250 Mystic Masonry. 

tetraktys are represented by equilateral triangles, 
and the points, in either case, form the angles of a 
series of lesser triangles. In the lesser tetraktys 
these triangles are altogether nine, or three times 
three. In the greater they count forty-nine, or 
seven times seven; and in each case the series runs, 
from apex to base, 1, 3, 5, for the lesser, and 1, 3, 
5> 7> 9> n> J 3> f° r tne greater tetraktys, or by a 
series of odd numbers; while the points, before the 
triangles are formed, run consecutively, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 8. These symbols were thus used as "odd" 
and "even," to carry a philosophical meaning, and 
to illustrate the doctrine of Emanation. 

In the Pythagorean system Spirit is everywhere 
represented as the Universal. "All multitude must 
necessarily issue from One," and that one is Spirit. 
All emanations and subdivisons must therefore be 
related to the One by absolute geometry (perfect 
forms) and absolute mathematics (perfect numbers 
and movements). 

In the 47th Problem, so famous in ancient philos- 
ophy (see Plate XI), and far older than Pythagoras 
or Euclid, we have a symbol of the perfect propor- 
tions between number and forms; between spirit 
and matter; and between universals and particu- 



An Outline of Symbolism. . 251 

lars; and this is a constant symbol in Masonic 
Lodges. 

In the Pythagorean Triangle, or tetrad (see Plate 
V), this same philosophy is symbolized. 

PROPOSITION. 

"Subdivide a regular figure in such a manner that 
the subdivisions shall be the same shape as the fig- 
ure, and 16 in number, and with 4 of the subdivi- 
sions bounding each side of the figure: 16 is the 
square of 4, or the Tetraktys. The triangle series 
is of odd numbers; the square even. The ten "Yods" 
occupy all the upright triangle divisions." (Quoted, 
with plate, from print by Fred. G. Plummer.) 

This Pythagorean method of "philosophizing ac- 
cording to numbers" has not only fallen into disuse 
in modern times, but has often been deemed alto- 
gether fanciful and been subject to ridicule, simply 
because the philosophy upon which it is based is 
lost. It originally constituted the Art-Speech, or 
glyphs, in which that philosophy was expressed, 
and to understand the one is to recover the other. 
This philosophy bridged the gap between mind and 
matter through apprehension of the one underlying 
Law. It connected Physics with Metaphysics 



252 Mystic Masonry. 

through the Science of Mathematics, or the rela- 
tions of Number to Form, or of Equilibrium to- mo- 
tion. The Adept knew the relations between the 
movements (vibrations) that produce thought, those 
that produce form, those that produce color, and 
those that produce light and sound, and the number 
of these in each case. The source of all these is a 
Trinity; the form of emanation a septenary. Hence 
the play upon the formula "three times three" and 
"seven times seven." The first postulate of this 
philosophy has been shown in a previous chapter to 
be Abstract Space, and Abstract, absolute Motion; 
and this absolute motion is that of the Primordial 
Atoms, thus constituting "the center which is every- 
where and the circumference which is nowhere;" 
t. e., fills all space. It is necessary, however, to re- 
mind the reader that these "Atoms" are not those 
of modern Science, or those that compose what we 
call Matter, for the reason that they are, one and 
all, endowed (potentially) with Consciousness, 
Life, and Intelligence, and are equally world- 
builders and man-builders. They are the vehicles 
and the basis of all Law in Nature. They form alike 
the moving panorama of thought and the tides of 
the restless sea: The beating of the human heart, 
and the revolutions of Suns and Solar Systems; the 



An Outline of Symbolism. 253 

breath of an infant, and the "Breath of Brahm." 
There is universal and eternal Unity and Equilib- 
rium in the midst of universal diversity; Perpetual 
Involution of Spirit or essence, and endless evolu- 
tion of form and variety; and back of all, the One 
Eternal Principle, unknown and forever unknow- 
able, without beginning, without end, without 
change. Space is the mantle that forever conceals 
Him. Abstract, absolute Motion is his Fiat. Crea- 
tion is His Logos, Word, Speech, Expression, Will, 
Thought — call it what you will. Man is a "Spark" 
from this "Flame," and, in the last analysis, as in- 
comprehensible to himself as God. This Spark of 
Divinity in man is his consciousness, and this in a 
previous chapter we have postulated as a fact, 
nothing more. 

This brings us to the origin of the Tetraktys, the 
origin of the Ineffable Name, the Lost Word. The 
Hebrews seem to have derived their Tetraktys from 
the Chaldo-Egyptian Mysteries, and these may be 
traced to the Zoroastrian Fire Philosophy, till finally 
the Word is A : . \ U . \ M -. \ In both Persian or 
Zend and in Sanscrit, the three letters are found in 
many names that designate fire, flame, Spirit, es- 
sence, etc. This again is a glyph or form of ex- 
pression. Every emanation is a trinity; and Fire, 



254 Mystic Masonry. 

Flame, and Light are the most perfect synthesis of 
this tri-unity. Consider the expressions, "The Lord 
is a consuming fire;" "Since God is light, and never 
but in unapproached Light dwelt from eternity," etc. 

The symbol is found in all Scriptures, but only in 
the Mysteries was the meaning thus symbolized 
made known. Here, then, is the origin of all the 
trinities found in Masonry, the plainest of which are 
the trinities of Light, and the most superficial ex- 
planations are found connected with the three lesser 
Lights of the Lodge. 

"The Primitive Holy Symbol, composed of three 
letters, in which the Vedic Triad is comprehended, 
ought to be kept secret like another Triple Veda. 
He who knows the mystic value of this syllable, 
knows the Veda." — Laws of Mann, Book XI, No. 
265. 

"The mortal who iraws nigh unto fire will have 
a light from Divinity." — Chaldean Oracle. 

"In every world shines forth a Triad, whereof the 
Principle is Unity." — Chaldean Oracle. 

"It is necessary to know that the Divine Name 
of its indwelling Potency, and which is a symbol of 
the impression of the Demiourgos, according to 
which it does not go forth from its being, is in- 



An Outline of Symbolism. 255 

effable and Secret, and known only to the Gods 
themselves." — Proclus. 

The legend of the Lost Word and the Potency of 
the Ineffable Name are inseparable. They are the 
glyphs of Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regained; 
or of the Fall and the Redemption of man. So also 
is the legend of re-building the temple, a glyph of 
Initiation, which is the same as Regeneration and 
Evolution. 

This ancient Wisdom belongs in a special sense 
to Masonry, for it has done most of any organiza- 
tion of modern times to preserve the ancient land- 
marks, and has honored and protected the sacred 
symbols. If Masonry has made only a superficial 
use of these hoary secrets, and their deeper meaning 
is still unknown to the craft, it is equally unknown 
to all others, except as the result of genuine initia- 
tion. One may know that a thing exists, where it is 
to be found, and that it is above all price, without 
knowing, to the last analysis, what it is. Such is 
the secret to the Lost Word, or the Ineffable Name. 
Its secret lies in exact vibrations under mathemat- 
ical and synchronous relations; and its Law is 
Equilibrium, or Eternal Harmony. 



256 Mystic Masonry. 



CHAPTER X. 

CONCLUSION. 

The foregoing pages can justly be called frag- 
ments only of the Secret Doctrine and of the Sym- 
bols of Freemasonry. A systematic treatise on 
either of these subjects would necessarily include 
the other. The Secret Doctrine is the oomplete 
Philosophy of Masonic Symbolism. So long as this 
philosophy is unknown to the Mason, his symbols 
are, to a great extent, dead letters, the work of the 
lodge a dumb show beyond its moral precepts, and 
the Genius of Masonry for the members of the 
Craft is largely the spirit of self-interest, mutual 
support, and physical enjoyment or revelry, the 
latest embodiment of which is the "Mystic Shrine." 
But there are some among the members of the 
Craft — and how many time alone can determine — 
who believe that Masonry means far more than this, 
and who have already discerned in its symbols and 
traditions something of their real meaning. Many 
of these have found partial clues which served to 
keep interest alive while searching for plainer mean- 



Conclusion. 257 

ings and deeper revelations. In retracing the steps 
by which these ancient symbols and their profound 
philosophy have come down to our own time, more 
and more obscured with every passing century, stu- 
dents have gathered a large number of facts, a great 
mass of traditions and general information, all of 
which have been variously interpreted by different 
writers on Masonry. All writers, however, agree 
in the conclusion that the symbols and traditions 
of Freemasonry come from the far East, and go 
back to the remotest antiquity. 

So that the saying that the Mason journeys from 
West to East in search of light is literally true. 
This search is not one incited by curious interest 
only. If Masonry possesses merely a mass of curious 
myths and meaningless symbols, of what real value 
is it to any one to trace them down? What real 
benefit can it be to any one to demonstrate that five 
or ten thousand years ago the same curious myths) 
and meaningless symbols existed in the Mysteries 
of Egypt, or were taught by Pythagoras and the 
followers of Zoroaster? Such, however, is not the 
genius of Freemasonry. 

The real secrets of Masonry lie concealed in its 
Symbols, and these, constituting as they do a Pic- 
ture Language, or Art Speech, are made to carry a 



258 Mystic Masonry. 

complete philosophy of the existence and relations 
of Deity, Nature, and Man. The average Mason, 
taking the symbols for the things symbolized, and 
knowing nothing of the profound philosophy upon 
which they rest, is incredulous that it ever existed, 
and so he treads the "burning sands" in search of 
a novel sensation or a new joke. As mere pastimes 
these jovial entertainments are neither better nor 
worse than many others. They represent one ex- 
treme into which the Ancient Wisdom has degener- 
ated. Let every intelligent Mason reflect on the 
sublimity and sanctity of the ceremonies in some of 
the degrees, where the name of Deity is invoked, 
where the highest moral precepts are inculcated, 
and where the purest and most exalted ethics are 
taught, and then let him ask himself the question, 
whether it is consistent and devoid of hypocrisy to 
round all this with a roaring farce? Does not such 
a course tend to make all sacred things also a mere 
matter of form, a jest and a byword? 

Every Mason is familiar with this extreme and 
with the extent to which these recent innovations 
and associations have been carried, and the present 
writer is by no means the first to protest against it, 
however ungraciously his protest may be received or 
unpopular this work may be. Let every intelligent 



Conclusion. 259 

Mason admit, merely for the sake of the argument, 
that there is another extreme. Suppose it to be true 
and easily demonstrable, that the Symbols of Ma- 
sonry embody and were originally designed to con- 
vey the most profound Wisdom, and that these sym- 
bols stand unchanged through all the ages, and are 
the means by which that wisdom may at any time 
be recovered by him who can find their true mean- 
ing. Masonry is, in a special sense, the custodian of 
these symbols, and it is its most common tradition 
that these and the Ancient Landmarks are to be 
preserved unaltered. This is the plainest and most 
logical deduction from the whole spirit of Masonry. 
These custodians are, in the highest degrees, called 
Princes of the Royal Secret — Nay, Sublime Princes 
of the Royal Secret ! What a farce, what pretense, 
if there is no Royal Secret. Reflect a moment, good 
reader, and; especially good Brother Mason. What 
is the most sacred treasure, the most lasting pos- 
session of man? Is it not knowledge? Suppose a 
tidal wave should sweep all our seaports on the 
Eastern and Western coasts, and that this should 
be followed by cyclone and earthquake, so that the 
whole country should be completely devastated in a 
month. A few millions of our people remaining, 
with all our resources of knowledge, it might take 



260 Mystic Masonry. 

half a century to recover a greater part of our 
prosperity. But suppose our people were all swept 
away, like many an ancient Civilization or Lost Em- 
pire; or suppose that all else remained, and we lost 
our store of knowledge, all Arts, all Sciences, and 
that our whole people were reduced to the condition 
of our North American Indians; half a century, 
then, would destroy all we have so laboriously 
wrought out, and we might pitch our wigwams in 
weed-grown streets, or amid crumbling ruins. What 
we have imagined of our own is but the history of 
other civilizations. The howling wastes of Gobi 
conceal, we are told, the remains of a civilization 
for outranking our own, and beneath the ocean's 
bed lie entombed the records and the monuments of 
man. Our most lasting possession is knowledge; 
and when this is swept away, desolation only re- 
mains. Bro. Pike says that the real secrets of Ma- 
sonry, the philosophy concealed in its Symbols, are 
far older than the Vedas, and are at least ten thou- 
sand years old, and that the Art-Speech, which 
Symbolism is, was designed by real Princes of the 
Royal Secret, by Prince Adepts, or Perfect Mas- 
ters, to conceal, preserve, and convey this Ancient 
Wisdom to the latest generations of men: That 
when Civilizations decayed, when Empires ceased 



Conclusion. 261 

to be, and when desolation brooded in silence over 
a whole continent, a "Rock beside the Water," or a 
symbol transplanted to another land might serve to 
convey the lost secret to another people and time. 
Knowing the course of Empire and the inevitable 
destiny of Races of man, these Sublime Princes of 
the Royal Secret, by wise forethought, determined 
that nothing should be lost. Such is the heritage 
of Masonry, and Bro. Pike proves this beyond all 
controversy by excerpts from the sacred books of all 
Religions, and by the most learned and painstaking 
investigation. The value of such investigations 
does not consist in proving the great antiquity of the 
Symbols of Freemasonry, for this is an easy task, 
and no one with the slightest knowledge of the sub- 
ject dare dispute it, for the symbols are found on 
the oldest monuments, and described in the oldest 
records known to man. A far more difficult under- 
taking, the results of which are beyond all else valu- 
able, is the effort to determine exactly what these 
symbols mean. If they were the precipitated re- 
sults of profound knowledge, the very fruitage of 
all past civilizations, some of which transcended all 
we have yet achieved in the West, then to correctly 
interpret them, means the recovery of all past 
knowledge, in substance, if not in detail. This is 



262 Mystic Masonry. 

precisely the interpretation and the value that 
should be put upon such results. This result is the 
recovery of the Lost Word of the Master, and the 
Symbol of that Word is the A. U. M. of the Persian 
Magi and the most Ancient Brahman, because, back 
of that tri-literal glyph lies the Philosophy of the 
Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of all Knowledge. 
Let any Prince of the Royal Secret examine the 
evidence and judge for himself. If, instead of doing 
this, he prefers to sneer at these statements, and to 
ridicule the whole subject, while he still boasts the 
title of Prince Adept, he stands as three men once 
stood near the coast of Joppa, self-convicted by the 
imprecations of his own mouth. The present re- 
vival of Philosophy in the West ought to bring about 
the restoration of this old wisdom. While it cannot 
interfere with the Masonic organization in the least, 
or seek to reveal any of its ceremonies, grips, or 
passwords, by which the secrets of Masonry may 
be obtained unlawfully, it must give the largest 
credit to the fidelity with which the Symbols and 
Ancient Landmarks have been preserved by the or- 
ganization of Freemasons, and seek the co-operation 
of all earnest and true Masons in the recovery of 
the Lost Word, and in promulgating this sublime 
philosophy for the benefit of the whole human race. 



Conclusion. 263 

There is an old occult maxim which declares 
that "Nothing is concealed from him who knows." 
No Mason is bound to conceal that which he has 
never learned in the Lodge. All else he receives as 
he learns anything, places his own estimate upon 
its value, and becomes individually responsible for 
its use. It must be a matter of conscience, and be 
weighed in the balance of duty, and everyone must 
abide by the result. If Masonry has lost the Royal 
Secret, or if it never possessed it, or if it was 
wrenched away in the very name of Religion little 
more than a century ago, all the same, it belongs to 
the Craft as the Heir-apparent of the Old Wisdom. 
But the time has come when no cable-tow can bind 
it. It now belongs to Humanity equally with the 
Mason. To this end has it been preserved through- 
out the centuries. 

What a future lies before Masonry should it de- 
termine to enter into its birthright to possess it. 
Thoroughly organized as it is, and counting its 
membership by tens of thousands, rehabilitated in 
its ancient wisdom, it may become an irresistible 
force in shaping the present civilization, and in 
influencing the future destiny of Man. All else 
has perished from the civilizations of the past. 
Wisdom alone is immortal of all the possessions of 



264 Mystic Masonry. 

man. Of all the achievements of Classic Greece 
nothing is so well remembered today as the school 
of Pythagoras, and the Philosophy of Plato, and 
these but embody and were founded upon the Royal 
Secret of every Prince Adept Mason. To restore 
the Royal Secret would be a work, which, when 
completed, would be to our present humanity what 
the supporting Columns are to the Lodge : Wisdom, 
Strength and Beauty. (Knowledge, Power and 
Harmony.) It would introduce new methods, and 
motives, and new ideals into modern education, 
and give us in a few generations other Platos. If 
we create the conditions the results are sure to 
follow. Here lies the reward for all the trials and 
persecutions to which Masons have been subjected 
in the past. Here we may build the monument of 
all its Heroes and Martyrs. We may so build that 
seeing it they would rejoice that they suffered to the 
end. Bacon dreamed of a great "Instauration," a 
recovery of knowledge, and possession of wisdom 
from Inductive Philosophy alone; but on such lines 
it must be forever a dream. The old Philosophy is 
both inductive and deductive, through the perfect 
equilibrium of Reason and Intuition, or Experience 
and Aspiration, and is scientific to the last degree. 
It will give us as a result Knowledge and Power 



Conclusion. 265 

without oppression; Religion without superstition; 
Universal Liberty, Toleration and Fraternity ; Uni- 
versal Compassion; Peace on Earth, and Good-will 
to Man. 

Of course it is in the province of Masonry to 
elect, if it chooses, that its symbols shall have only 
a superficial meaning in the Lodge. It may admit 
that it has adopted from the ancient mysteries the 
glyphs and parables that once served to embody 
and convey the most complete and profound philos- 
ophy, and, while adopting these symbols and the 
ancient art-speech, confine their use and interpreta- 
tion to such lessons of equity, morality, and frater- 
nity, as are to be found in all exoteric religions. 

The author of this book would be the last to 
ignore or to belittle the value of ethical or moral 
precepts. But these are the basis of conduct, not 
the crown of existence; the beginning, not the end 
if wisdom. 

Man's "general infancy," as Browning puts it, 
only begins when his code of ethics is complete, and 
when he is perfected as man. To spend the greater 
part of his days in transgression and repentance is 
not Man's "object served, his end Attained, his 
genuine strength put fairly forth." 

Masonry not only nowhere denies this deeper 



266 Mystic Masonry. 

meaning to its symbolism, but many writers have ad- 
mitted it and expatiated upon it, but very few seem 
to have been able to discern the real meaning. They 
have generally failed because of sectarian bias, 
which dwarfed their vision and narrowed the ancient 
Wisdom Religion to the bounds of a modern creed, 
while the genius of the ancient wisdom is universal 
and all-inclusive. To deny or to ignore any but the 
most superficial view is to adopt such conclusions as 
those arrived at by the Astronomer Royal of Scot- 
land, who makes of the Coffer in the King's chamber 
of the great pyramid of Ghezeh, only "a corn-bin !" 
It is to profane the holy vessels, and at last to ma- 
terialize all spiritual things. It may justly be 
doubted whether any man for the past century and 
a half has done so much toward restoring Masonry 
to its birthright as Grand Master Albert Pike. His 
writings are a mine of wealth too little known to 
the great majority of Masons. The recent Jesuit- 
ical attack on his memory is not only a palpable and 
sensational lie, but it should serve to arouse every 
Prince of the Royal Secret to a deeper knowledge 
of the value of Bro. Pike's work. That work not 
only abounds in the clearest exposition of all the 
Masonic virtues, and reveals a mind incapable of 
baseness, but, passing beyond these to the full stat- 



Conclusion. 267 

lire of Manhood, grasps those eternal principles 
which underlie the building of Cosmos and the evo- 
lution and regeneration of man. The charge that 
such a man, breathing reverence to truth, love to 
man, and aspiration toward light in every sentence 
of his voluminous writings, could descend to bes- 
tiality and grovel in convulsions at the feet of a con- 
fessed devil-worshiper, is worthy of his real ac- 
cusers; and yet such is the voluminous attack re- 
cently made in the pages of a leading New York 
daily. The attack but thinly veils the old-time as- 
sassins of the heroes and martyrs of Masonry, and 
is designed to frighten the ignorant and supersti- 
tious into fresh hatred of Masonry. This hysterical 
"Granddaughter of Astarte" is herself a victim, if 
she has any real existence at all, of the same nefast 
body, and is only a fit subject for a madhouse. 
History repeats itself; and this fresh attack upon 
Masonry, while it can not tarnish the fame of the 
honored dead, should warn Masons that even in this 
enlightened age the minions of the Prince of Dark- 
ness and the Father of Lies have not renounced 
their allegiance or forgotten their cunning. Perse- 
cution is to the Truth what the winds and the rains 
are to the sprouting oak. These but sink deeper 
the roots of conviction, and spread wider the leaves 



268 Mystic Masonry. 

that are for the healing of the Nations. If Masons 
will but pass from refreshment to labor and unite 
in rebuilding the City and Temple of the Lord of 
Truth, recover the Lost Word, and rehabilitate the 
ancient Wisdom, she may paraphrase the saying of 
Macaulay in his essay on Barere, and apply it to 
all her enemies : "We therefore like his invectives 
against us much better than anything else he has 
written. ... It was but little that he could do to 
promote the honor of our country; but that little he 
did strenuously and constantly. Renegade, traitor, 
slave, coward, liar, slanderer, murderer, hack-writer, 
police-spy — the one small service which he could 
render to England was to hate her; and such as he 
was may all who hate her be." Masonry need not 
fear the hatred of such, and only such will hate her 
if she enters into her priceless inheritance, bears 
aloft her banners and emblazons with light her 
time-honored Landmarks. 

SO MOTE IT BE. 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 269 



POSTSCRIPT TO THE FIFTH EDITION 



The original thesis of "Mystic Masonry" may be de- 
fined as follows: 

To show and illustrate the profound wisdom embodied 
in the philosophy that underlies and runs like a golden 
thread throughout the whole Institution of Freemasonry: 
To demonstrate through this philosophy and its use, 
illustrations, dramatic representations and symbolism, 
that the "Work of the Lodge" constitutes a Great School 
of Instruction for its candidates and Fraters, in the real 
meaning of life, and the basic principles of human con- 
duct, so as to secure the highest and most noble results 
ever revealed to man: To render absurd and illogical 
any other inference from the references to, and all that 
we know of, the real Masters of the past, and the Schools, 
and the "Greater Mysteries" of antiquity. 

Masonry seems to have embodied, crystallized, pre- 
served and adapted to the present age, these Jewels of 
all the past, divested of all extraneous or irrelevant 
matters. 



270 Mystic Masonry. 

This is the meaning of the Perfect Ashlar. The author 
was well aware that but few Masons realized what a 
treasure-house of Jewels they possessed, and that some, 
perhaps, would regard such a claim as absurd, and al- 
together fanciful. 

He was also aware that there are thousands of Brother 
Masons who believe that there must be far deeper truths, 
and more valuable treasures, concealed, than are revealed, 
or generally apprehended, if they only knew where to 
search, and how to discover them; for he has heard 
this statement oft repeated by Brothers, young and old. 

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how any intelligent 
and thoughtful man can go through the dramatic and 
monitorial Initiation of the three degrees of the Blue 
Lodge, and come to any other conclusion. 

To justify this logical inference, encourage the in- 
telligent search for the Royal ' Secret, and assist in the 
Recovery of the Lost Word was the original and only 
motive of "Mystic Masonry. 

The author has been a Mason nearly half a century 
and aside from the study of Masonry, its sources, symbol- 
ism and essential meaning, has been able to check and 
verify these great truths from another source, viz., the 
study of man, and especially from the study of Psychology. 
Here the opportunities to test theories of life, and the 
motives of conduct and elements of character really 
transcend all others. 

The physician sees like none other, both the begin- 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 271 

ning and the end of embodied human life. From the 
"first breath", often so anxiously looked for and evoked, 
of the little one, that 

"Out from the shore of the Great Unknown, 
Comes weeping and wailing, and all alone" — 

to the last breath of the aged just crossing the Great 
Divide, the physician is present, often nearer than any 
other, and vigilant, observing, solicitous, and full of 
deep reflection. It is his office to try to understand, 
in order that he may apply and utilize then, and there- 
after. 

It may seem to some a startling and unwarranted 
statement, that the most profound truths of Psychology, 
[the building of Character, and self-control which more 
than all else safeguards against disease, paresis, premature 
senility and insanity,] are all embodied in the very foun- 
dations of Freemasonry. But this is the simple truth. 
To illustrate and verify here would be out of place, but 
it is a thesis easily demonstrated. Masonry embodies 
a Science of Ethics, of human conduct and character, 
found scarcely anywhere else; and more than half of all 
our diseases come from lack of self-control and from 
selfish indulgence. 

Every Mason knows, and I am writing principally 
for Brother Masons, that this government, of which, 
in spite of all its faults, we are so justly proud, was in- 
spired and founded mostly by men who were Masons. 



272 \Mystic Masonry. 

The "truths" that were "self-evident", and the "rights" 
that were "inalienable", were perceived in and by those 
founders as derived from Masonry. They were trans- 
planted directly from Masonry to the "Declaration", 
and the "Constitution", though we have not yet alto- 
gether realized them. This is why Albert Pike and 
others have called Masonry the "Great Republic". 

They tried to define the Eminent Domain, the "Re- 
served Right" of every Individual, every Citizen, to 
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. These In- 
alienable Rights were founded on "Self-evident Truths". 

Before a candidate takes the slightest obligation in 
Masonry, and as the premise of every obligation taken, 
he is given the unqualified assurance that no obligation 
required of him shall interfere with any duty he owes to 
God, to his Country, to his neighbor, or himself; and he 
alone is to be the Judge of these duties. These are 
his "Inalienable Rights"; his "recognized Duties; his 
Eminent Domain. Enlarged and elaborated, defined 
and codified, here is our "Declaration of Independence", 
our "Constitution of a Free People", and it is the Genius 
of Freemasonry pure and simple. It is impossible to 
enslave either the body, mind or soul of man while these 
principles and declarations are strictly and logically ad- 
hered to. Nor were the founders of this Government 
"Of the People, by the People, for the People" either in 
ignorance or in doubt as to the danger point, for they 
proceeded to forever separate Church and State, as far as 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 273 

possible. The Government was to be a State affair, 
with which the Church had, officially, nothing to do what- 
soever. 

Rome declares in America today, that Church and 
State shall be united as one; and that one shall be the 
Church. I hereby challenge every Freemason in America 
today to Take Notice of this Sign and Summons. 

To the profound Philosophy of Life, and the stores of 
Ancient Wisdom to which it was the original design of 
this little book to call attention, there is now added an 
imminent duty of Citizenship, for which the Freemason 
ought to be better prepared and more strongly obligated 
than any other, for the simple reason that these duties 
and obligations are taught, ingrained, and illustrated 
in the School of Masonry, specifically and concisely as 
no where else in the world today. 

This is why Rome hates, vilifies and anathematizes 
Masonry continually, relentlessly and eternally. There 
can be no compromise. Shall it be Church, or State, 
to rule in this "Free Country"? It cannot possibly be 
both. Rome today is the most powerful and ambi- 
tious Political Autocracy on earth, and she already holds 
the Balance of Power in America! 

I have said nothing here of the Religious department 
of the Roman Hierarchy. That is "another story". 

The Mason who is untrue to the basic principles of 
Masonry, can be nothing less than a Traitor to his Country. 
There can be no middle ground, no compromise. 



274 Mystic Masonry. 

If the more than two million Masons in the United 
States today, would do their duty, as did that handful 
of men and Masons who signed our Declaration of In- 
dependence, we should have a bloodless revolution, and 
the Italian Cardinals who run the Politics of the Roman 
Church would "get out of politics", so far as America is 
concerned; while the Catholic religion would have the 
same rights and benefits here as any other; no more, 
no less. 

Of what value or use is the Wisdom of the Ages if we 
fail to put its principles in practice, or to utilize its pro- 
found lessons running through the whole history of man? 

Every just and Upright Mason ought to know and to 
realize what he stands for, why he is a Mason, and that 
while his freedom is reserved, his "inalienable rights" 
were secured by sacrifice, and can only be preserved by 
conscientious regard and discharge of duty. 

"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty". The 
greatest enemy of the Republic today is the man who 
stupidly or indifferently says, "There is no danger". 
This is the strongest asset of the enemy of all our Liber- 
ties. Get a word of this danger into any influential 
newspaper if you can. They are all "censored". 

"Mother Church" and "The Party" are political 
slogans, pure and simple; built for "graft", and founded 
on greed, equally unscrupulous and menacing. 

I have not a particle of fear that any intelligent, just 
and upright Mason will deny, or be able to disprove a 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 275 

single statement herein made. The facts are scarcely 
outlined. The fear and the danger are that Masons will 
continue to ignore, belittle or evade them. 

The present point of attack is our Free Public Schools, 
the very foundation of all our Free Institutions; and 
the Parochial Schools are fast gaining ground. 

The most hopeful sign is the Resolution recently passed 
by the National Teachers Association, unanimously pro- 
testing against any division of the School fund, for any 
Sectarian body whatsoever. 

Nothing is easier than to demonstrate that the Prin- 
ciples which Masonry so clearly defines and upon which 
the Lodge is built, constitute the Magna Charta of this 
Government, and were thence derived. These prin- 
ciples are the pure gold of ethics and the conduct of 
life, both individual and associate, from the melting 
pot of all human history, and the wisdom of all ages. 

This is why "Mother Church", that is, the sixty-odd 
Italian Cardinals, arrogant, ambitious, relentless, vin- 
dictive, hate Masonry, misrepresent it, and continually 
anathematize it, and would destroy it if they could, as 
they have murdered its votaries in the past. 

Masonry stands squarely across their path; stands for 
the exact opposite of all their political ambition covets 
and would gain at any cost to mankind; for with them, 
"the end justifies the means". 

Not one citizen in a thousand realizes what immense 
progress this Political Autocracy has made in America 



276 Mystic Masonry. 

in the fourteen years since this little book was written. 

In Canada today the citizens are trying to undo the 
work of Popery and Jesuitism in the Public Schools, 
shake off the blight of Priestcraft and regain their Liber- 
ties. Read the Canadian papers and see, for they are 
not all censored. 

Of what value is a knowledge of history if we are 
never to profit by its bitter lessons and admonitions? 
Of what value is a knowledge of the basic principles that 
underlie all individual and social life, if we are not ready 
to utilize them, live by them, and, if need be, fight for 
them and die for them, as did the Fathers of this Republic? 

I can only speak and act as one man, already entered 
on his "fourth score" of years, and a Mason for nearly 
fifty years. In many countries today, I would pay the 
forfeit of life, for these utterances; and in this country 
six deliberate attempts within the year have been made 
to assassinate one of my Masonic Comrades engaged in 
the same cause. 

So far as publicity and our open "Declaration" are 
concerned in this country, we have not yet made a 
beginning. But so far as the enemy of all our Free 
Institutions is concerned, scarcely a department of our 
Government, or one of our Safeguards of Freedom exists 
that is not by them already undermined. Free School, 
Free Press, Free Religion — all undermined by Jesuitry, 
and paying tribute to Rome! 

During the past fourteen years I have advanced from 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 277 

the reflections of philosophy, to the "Church Militant", 
as every just and upright Mason will, ere long, be com- 
pelled to pass from "refreshment to labor", or become a 
traitor to every Masonic principle, and implicated in the 
destruction of every design on his trestleboard. 

In "Mystic Masonry" I have tried to give a glimpse 
of the Jewels of Wisdom, the Crown Jewels of every high 
civilization that has ever existed, inspired by their sages 
and wisest Masters. 

Year by year my convictions have deepened, the glory 
and beauty become more and more transcendent, and 
the outlook more uplifting on the Journey of Life. 

Scarcely a proposition herein contained, drawn from 
Philosophy and Symbolism, and justified by analogy 
and rational sequence, that has not since been confirmed 
by Natural Science, and reaffirmed by the author of 
"The Great Work". 

I undertook consistently to portray the qualifications 
that should constitute a "Master", such as I had not 
seen or known. A score of times I said to the Beloved 
Comrade, "I am waiting for the Man", and one day I 
found him. 

I find no incongruity between the logical inference I 
had drawn and the actuality I had discovered. It was 
like pointing a telescope at the nidus of perturbations in 
space, and locating a new planet. 

The whole of Masonry, the sequence of symbolism, 
pointed in this one direction, led to no other inference, 



278 Mystic Masonry. 

would have added q.e.d. to no other solution of the 
problem. For seven years I have been making careful 
observations of the orbit and movements of the new star 
on my horizon, and been rewarded by assurance, con- 
firmation, satisfaction and higher aspiration. 

Good men and women seem so often discouraged and 
bewildered over the experiences of life. To the ever- 
lasting question, "What does it all mean?" often comes 
the discouraged, and discouraging answer, "Nobody 
knows". 

How to adjust the vicissitudes of life, and to utilize 
its varying experiences, so as to become Master of the 
results upon ourselves, that is the Royal Secret, the Great 
Work. 

Facing, as we must, Principalities and Powers, things 
present, and things to come, and Life and Death, and 
yet to remain serene, steadfast, and full of good cheer, 
is the Great Secret. Does this not imply a mental atti- 
tude — a way of -looking at things — a method of living — 
an assurance that we are on the right path — and a con- 
viction that all is well, and the goal secure? 

Masonry is a Great School, designed and qualified to 
educate every initiate in just this Science of Life. What 
else is the meaning of the "Instructive Tongue, the 
Listening Ear and the Faithful Breast"? What else can 
it be to be "made a Mason in the heart"? Is not that 
an expression of reality and sincerity} What else can the 
expression — "By being a Man", mean? Certainly not 



Postscript to the Fifth Edition. 279 

a coward, a slave, a fanatic, or an imbecile. Test the 
noblest characters of all time by these principles and 
these standards and see if they are not revealed. 

This is the Great School of Masonry coming down 
through the ages, whether one student in a thousand 
Graduates, and "makes good", or not. 

The "Infallible" Pope says we are "Atheists", and do 
not believe in God. He knows better. No man can 
pass to the Altar of Masonry who does not believe in 
God, as two million American Masons will testify. 

Freemasonry is aligned with Eternal Truth, Liberty, 
Charity and Fraternity, and it lies squarely across the 
pathway of all who would enslave the human soul, and 
there it will stand so long as God is in the Heavens, and 
till Time shall be no more. 

Murder, as Rome has often tried to do, every Free- 
mason on earth today, and not one of its principles, its 
Priceless Jewels would be changed or lost. You might 
as well try to destroy the principles of Light, Electricity 
or Gravitation. 

One of the relics preserved for pious Catholics in the 
East, we are told, is a bottle containing "the darkness 
that fell upon Egypt". If his "Infallible Holiness" 
should look upon this bottle he would undoubtedly be- 
hold his own image reflected there, with his swarm of 
Italian Cardinals hovering like locusts in the background 
and his "bottle of darkness" would indeed prove a boom- 
erang. 



280 Mystic Masonry. 

What Egypt was in its glory, when the Great Masters 
instituted its Paternal Government, and built the "Rock 
beside the Waters", America may yet become if every 
Mason is true to his Landmarks and his traditions, and 
to the Fathers who instituted them here. 

What Egypt is today, America will become, a waste of 
sand and howling jackals, if the same Priestcraft and 
Paganism that triumphed there, are allowed here to 
destroy our Free Schools, and reunite Church and State. 

The issues are exceedingly plain, and as old as the 
human race on this earth. 

Since the "Lost Word" may be "discovered" in the 
"Great Work", the designs upon the trestleboard are 
restored for the first time in many a weary century. Only 
the Listening Ear, and the Faithful Breast are required. 
I, for one, have listened, examined the Jewel, and found 
the Mark. 

Fraternally, 

J. D. Buck. 
Cincinnati, June 1911. 




"Unveil— O thou that giveth sustenance to the 
universe, from whom all things proceed, to whom 
all must return, — that face of the true Sun now 
hidden by a vase of Golden Light, that we may 
know the truth, and do our whole duty on our 
journey to thy sacred seat." 




'*£s"_ spy*** 6 



Plate I. 

Descent of Spirit into Matter. 

"All Things From One." 




Plats XL 




Plate HI. 
The First Differentiation. 




Plate IV. 
The Second Differentiation. 






/i \/"J\ 
/ 1 \/ T \/ I \ 

•A /A /"?\ /i 



I 

3 
5 

7 
-J 6 

4 

4 

4 

4 
-16 



Plate V. 
Tetragrammaton of Pythagoras. 




Plate VI. 

The Relation of Spirit to Matter. 




Plate VII. 
Matter and Spirit in Equilibrium. 



Plate VIII. 
The Greater Tetraktys. 

M I praise Thee with my Lips, 
I know not the numbers*" 




Plate IX. 
'The Stone that the Builders rejected. " 




Plate X. 
Trinity of Trinities. 






> 
h 



P 



Qo/lTERNARY OF MATTER, 



Plate XI. 
The "Forty Seventh Problem" — Diversity in Unity. 




Plate XII. 
The Lamb-skin, or White Apron. 




Plate XHI. 
The Cube Unfolded. 









Plate XIV. 
The Sequence of Symbolis&c. 



jf or ^rogre^tbe people 



The Great School or The School of Natural Science 
is the modern name for that venerable school of Wisdom 
whose records are the most ancient at this time known 
to man. For many thousands of years this School has 
influenced the civilization and work of every great nation 
of earth and with unceasing labors its members have 
toiled for the advancement of the human race from 
ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light. 

Twenty-eight years ago this Great School established 
its personal work in this country and since that time 
thousands of Progressive People have become readers 
and students of the Science and the Philosophy which 
has now been presented in three published volumes or 
text books of the School. Each book is complete in 
itself. These text-books are known as the Harmonic 
Series. 

ZEfje harmonic Series 

Harmonics of Evolution. By Florence Huntley. 
The main theme is the Natural Law of Marriage. It 
is the Philosophy of Individual Life based upon Natural 
Science as taught by the Modern Masters of the Law. 
A book for men and women who are studying the great 
personal problems of Love, Marriage and Personal Re- 
sponsibility. A logical and scientific treatise of the three 
propositions: 1. There is no death. 2. Life after physical 
death is a fact scientifically demonstrable. 3. Life here 
and hereafter has a common development and a common 
purpose. Cloth bound, price $2.00 net. 

The Great Psychological Crime. By TK. A book 
for all students of Psychic Phenomena, but more especially 
for those who are investigating Hypnotism and Spiritual- 
ism. It covers the most mysterious and fascinating 
phenomena of human life. Cloth bound, $2.00 net. 



The Great Work. By TK. A book for every 
man and woman who is trying to find a real, satisfactory 
working Philosophy of Life. Explains the origin and. 
purpose of the Great School and outlines the character 
of Work done by its students. Answers the question, 
How may one prove that death does not end all? 

Written by an American Representative and Master 
of the Ancient School, who is not, nor has he ever been, 
a Hypnotist, a Medium or a Professional Mystic. 

"The Great Work" is written in beautiful, clear and 
entertaining style. It is filled with information which 
no man can afford to ignore in his endeavors to make 
the most of his life, here as well as hereafter. 

"The Great Work" is a logical presentation of the 
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School, in popular form. It will interest you if you have 
the slightest desire to solve the great problems of life. 

Cloth bound, price $2.00 net. Half leather Library 
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dark blue, green, wine or black, $3.50 net. 



Supplemental harmonic Series 

Offered as corroborative evidence in the lines of 
supplementary research and not as official expositions 
of the work of the School. 

The Genius of Freemasonry. By J. D. Buck, M.D. 
A book which every wide-awake Mason should read. 
Equally as interesting to any American citizen who be- 
lieves that politics and religion should be forever separated. 
Price in cloth binding, $1.00 net. 

The Crucifixion, by an Eyewitness. The story of 
the Crucifixion of Jesus as told by an actual eye-witness 
of that event. From an old manuscript found in 

Alexandria. Bound in cloth, price $1.00 net. 



Constructive Psychology. By J. D. Buck, M. D. 

Undertakes to make exceedingly plain those few simple 
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Mystic Masonry. By J. D. Buck, M. D. This is 
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and explains many of the ancient symbols. Of equal 
interest to the non-Masonic reader. Bound in cloth, 
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The Reality of Matter. To be published soon. 



tKfje Complemental Series 

The Bible in India. By Louis Jacolliot. This book 
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we have the source of civilization. A very valuable cor- 
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A Study of Man. By J. D. Buck, M. D. A study 
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Cloth bound, price $1.00 net. 



harmonic Jftctton Series; 

The Dream Child. By Florence Huntley. A new 
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Contains much philosophy and should be read by every 
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Cloth bound, gold stamp, illustrated, $1.00 net. 

The Gay Gnani of Gingalee. By Florence Huntley. 
A laugh producing extravaganza and occult "take-off" 
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3|armomc poofelet Series 

Who Answers Prayer. A brochure on Prayer. 
Answers the questions: What is prayer? For what 
should we pray? To whom should we pray? Who answers 
prayer? A text book of the Great School on this subject. 
Cloth bound, blue and gold, 50 cents net. 

The Lost Word Found. By J. D. Buck, M. D. 
Who has found the "lost word" and wants every true 
Mason to know how and where to do the same thing. 
Bound in purple and gold, illustrated, 50 cents net. 

Any of these books will be shipped, charges prepaid, 
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venient way; bank draft, postoffice or express money 
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218 North Kedzie Avenue 
CHICAGO 



Htfe anli Jetton 

Widespread and ever extending interest in the 
Great School and its work made necessary the 
publication of a magazine devoted to its interests; 
and thus we established LIFE AND ACTION — 
the off icial organ of the Great Work in America, as 
an aid and inspiration to the Students and Friends 
in their endeavors to apply the Science and the 
Philosophy of the School in their daily lives and 
conduct. 

No more fitting title could be found than 
LIFE AND ACTION for such a magazine, and 
if you have the slightest interest in the Great Work 
you will want to be on the subscription list. 

Since September, 1909, LIFE AND ACTION has 
been published bi-monthly with 56 or more pages 
of reading matter each issue. Twelve numbers 
will be sent to any address for $1.00 

All back numbers may be had in bound volumes 
at $1.00 per volume. Volume I is now on sale 
and volume II will be ready in April, 1911. 

THE INDO-AMERICAN MAGAZINE COMPANY 
222 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago. 



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